


Gemini

by Macx



Series: The Post War Arc [11]
Category: Transformers Generation One
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-04
Updated: 2011-06-04
Packaged: 2017-10-20 03:24:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 32,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/208237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Macx/pseuds/Macx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rumors about a 'Project Mindsinger' call Rodimus Prime to Earth, his stay sanctioned by the united governments. Together with Daemon and Dr. Rhyan Masters he tries to piece the puzzle together -- only to discover the sickening truth behind it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gemini

  
The room was lit by a lonely lightbulb, and the table and chairs looked ready to break down every second. There was nothing else in the room but a little stove, a fridge, and a bed. The open window admitted the noise of the street down below. A figure sat on the bed, half in the shadows. The lightbulb was not strong enough to cast enough light to touch more than one-third of the bed. The figure held a piece of paper in its hands, reading what was written on it. An envelope lay on the floor, torn open. A second figure stood at the window and looked down onto the street were the honking of cars and the roar of engines filled the air.   
"Are you sure we can control this?" the figure on the bed asked, the voice male.   
The one at the window turned, light reflecting off silvery gray hair, illuminating a slightly wrinkled, sun-tanned face.   
"Yes. We can control them. Let them act out their initial hunger and lust for revenge, then they'll be as docile as we wish them to. And if not, we can always use the back-up plan."   
The man on the bed sighed. "What if it backfires?"   
"Nothing will backfire. Remember the beginning? Remember how well they reacted? How beautifully they followed what we had programmed them with? This time there will be no restraints, no government interference."   
"Well, the united governments are busy with their own little political civil war anyway," he conceded. "They won't even notice what is going on until it's too late."   
"As will everyone," the older man agreed. "Let them run free now and then, when they have calmed down, we'll point them into the direction we want them to."   
"Cybertron."   
Cold laughter echoed through the cheap room, a place no one would have thought looking for either of the two men.   
"Yes, Cybertron."

* * *

It was early in the morning with the mist still clinging to the ground and the sun not yet strong enough to pierce through the cloud cover. It spoke of rain already and by midday it would probably pour down again. Rhyan Masters stopped his car in front of the security fence and got out, looking at the ruins shrouded in the wavy whiteness. A week had gone by since the facility had been destroyed and by now construction equipment was lining the driveway up to what had once been the main entrance. Bulldozers, steam shovels, Bobcats and more. The moment the officials gave the go, this ruin would be torn down. It had been declared highly unstable and dangerous, and multiple signs had been put up.   
Rhyan closed the door of the BMW and walked over to the fence. It was locked by a rather primitive combination lock, but he had no intention of breaking it. He was expected. The guard was a rough-hewn, tall man with light brown hair and watery eyes. He nodded at Masters as he flashed his ID and unlocked the fence.   
"Keep on de designated tracks," he told him, his voice heavily accented. "Dis is a dangerous ruin."   
"No problem, thanks."   
Up close the ruin looked even more impressive than from afar. It had the look of a movie set for a horror movie, just waiting for someone to shout 'action' and monsters to lurch toward the hero or heroine. Walking into the once proud building, Rhyan stepped over charred wooden beams, molten plastic, fallen roof sections, always cautious not to stray too far from the route declared safe.   
A labyrinth of more debris lay ahead of him and he peered into the murky twilight. Getting out a high power flash light he searched on.   
<Whoever destroyed the lab, he was thorough> he muttered.   
<And knew where to place the bombs> a rather cold and slightly cruel sounding voice answered.   
Rhyan, used to the voice, nodded. The CyberTek lab had gone up in a brilliant explosion of flames and debris, killing five people in the furnace fire and destroying everything within a short period of time. The fire fighters had not been able to save anything. This had once been a high-tech place of futuristic designs in glass and steel. Now it was a heap of debris.   
He stepped deeper inside, ducking his head to avoid fallen poles, charred and split open from the heat. Some of the walls around him had collapsed, partitions blackened, windows blasted out. Nothing left at all. Why would someone break in here and rummage around?   
That was the question he was trying to solve. Unfortunately he had been too late to catch the person they had arrested after the police had released he again. The address had proven to be false and the fine money paid had come from an unknown, anonymous source. Name, address and all had been false. Well, they might be able to find this stranger later. Hopefully!   
CyberTek was an old and renowned company, one of those who had first tried to work with Cybertronian technology, study it and incorporate it into daily life. Soon bigger companies had taken over where CyberTek had started and the small, private lab had turned its attention to yet untouched fields of research. It always had something or other to do with Cybertronian technology and they had always been in close contact with the Autobots and later the allied forces. Now all was in ruins.   
Rhyan kicked lightly against some charred wood and it cracked. Normally he would not be here to have a look at the facility if not for the rumors that had suddenly started to circle. They mainly concerned CyberTek's last project, the one no one knew anything about, at least anything specific.   
This last project was responsible for the destruction, it was said. Part of it had self-destructed, had turned against its creators, but no one said a single word as to what 'it' was.   
<Nothing here at all> Rhyan sighed.   
<What did you expect? Neon signs?> Daemon asked sarcastically.   
He smiled wryly. <Maybe. One can always hope. What about the main computer system? Any news about possible recovery?>   
<Burned to crisp>   
<Maybe we can still read stuff on it> Rhyan pondered.   
<Do I have to remind you that all the data tracks that were recovered are currently in the labs back at Project? The rest is ash and debris> Daemon told him coldly.   
Suddenly his cell phone beeped softly. Rhyan pulled it out. "Masters."   
"Rhyan, it's McCormack. Better get back here, we might have something on the CyberTek case," his friend and the leader of Project told him briskly.   
"What is it, Ian?"   
"Get back here," McCormack only said and then hung up.   
<Daemon?>   
<I'm just as clueless. Let's head back and see what he got> the Sentinel answered.   
Ten minutes later they were on the highway.

* * *

"We have a green light."   
Megatron didn't turn around, simply nodded. All running lights of the Mainspeed 5 were flashing and it was moving slowly toward the test range, a desolate part of space where there was no danger of them bumping into another ship.   
"Control systems up and running. Green light confirmed," Runamuck went on. "Moving out."   
The Mainspeed 5 picked its way to the preassigned coordinates and then turned.   
"Recovery One is standing by. Ready for launch. Ten seconds and counting."   
Megatron felt himself tense. Out of the corner of his optics he saw a small, black shadow hopping up on the narrow sill. He felt a smile tug at his lips as he watched Sparks press her nose against the heavy security glass, as if she could see the Mainspeed 5 like this.   
Runamuck continued counting down and when he reached 'zero' the lights on the control boards flared up like on a Christmas tree. The Mainspeed 5 sent tons of data, reports were coming in and everyone was busy recording what was going on. This was the latest test run of a new ship and it was also a dangerous test. No one was aboard and the whole ship was crammed full of surveillance equipment.   
"Ready condition on the transwarp engine," Astrotrain reported.   
"Full thrust. Let it jump," Megatron only said.   
"Jump engine firing up."   
Everyone seemed to lean forward as the Mainspeed 5 prepared to do what was expected of it. Megatron tensed even more and Sparks shot him a strange look, as if she could feel his tension radiating off him. She probably could. She had this knack; one he didn't really care about.   
Suddenly the Mainspeed 5 lurched, alarms sounding shrilly in the busy room and it got even more busy.   
"Report!" Megatron ordered, turning away from his position at he window.   
"I'm not sure...." The Decepticon stuttered into silence under the glare. "It's the stabilizers."   
"What about them?"   
"They are becoming unstable...."   
The glare turned a darker red and the hapless Decepticon the glare was directed at shrunk in his seat.   
"The transwarp cells are breaking away from the ship!" someone else suddenly exclaimed.   
Megatron whirled around and stared at the holographic model of the Mainspeed 5. Bulges had appeared where the transwarp drive developed by Hook and Scavenger sat in the test ship. They looked like small volcanic domes ready to go up. And then the armor broke open like a ripe fruit, the warp capsules breaking away from the main body of the ship, tearing apart the frame work. With a flash of light they .....jumped.   
"This can't be happening!" Hook exclaimed, staring at what had been his pet project for the last years. "Please! Tell me this isn't happening!"   
"It is," Ramjet said with a cruel smile.   
Hook shot him a murderous look, then saw the expression on Megatron's face. "Must be ... an instability," he tried to explain.   
"Recover the Mainspeed and try to find out where the blasted transwarp cells went to!" Megatron ordered, his voice deathly calm.   
"Yes, mighty Megatron!"   
Sparks looked up at him as he walked back to his spot at the window again. "Well, it worked better than the last time," she remarked. "At least she didn't explode."   
Megatron grunted something, knowing this was most likely true. They didn't have to rebuild the whole ship's structure again, but they had lost the warp cells. Maybe they could track their exit – if they exited at all. They could be stuck in warp space.

* * *

He paced nervously up and down in the small hotel room. Where was he? Zachary Budinsky stopped in front of the window and stared outside into the rainy city. The hotel was in one of the worse parts of the town, but this assured anonymity and the privacy Budinsky needed.   
"Shit, where are you, Alec," he muttered and resumed his pacing. It was already getting dark outside and Alec had been gone for more than two hours, arranging a meeting with the boss, getting the money they needed to leave this place.   
Two long hours.   
A little gnawing doubt sneaked into his mind. Maybe Alec had taken off with the money -- without him.   
No, Alec wouldn't do that. Alec was his friend and had been so for a long time.   
Suddenly there was a sound. Zachary listened up as he thought he heard footsteps outside in the corridor. Maybe it was Alec returning back to the room. Then again, it could be one of the many drunks living here, too. The footsteps stopped and then there was silence. No door opening or closing, no one knocking. Nervously, the former technician walked over to the door and listened intently. Nothing. Suddenly the door splintered as if hit by an incredible force. He gave a yelp and jumped back as something pushed its way through the wood.   
Zachary shrieked in panic as the intruder became visible.   
"Hello, Mr. Budinsky," the intruder whispered.   
His shriek turned into a terrified cry.

* * *

Rodimus Prime looked around, smiling slightly as memories of times he had been here, a long time ago, came back to him. Earth. He hadn't seen it in decades and though he had thought he hadn't missed it, being back felt good. He had spent a considerable time here, fighting Decepticons at first, then trying to make the alliance work, help the humans with their problems, help his own kind. In the end it had seemed all for nothing when Earth had decided that Cybertronian presence was a danger and had kicked them off.   
Today he had been allowed back.   
It had been a hard battle to get this permission, mainly because Earth was still not very secure in dealing with Cybertronians. But the matters occurring lately had changed a lot, mainly their general attitude. Cybertronian presence was still not encouraged on Earth, but at least he was here today and that was a small victory.   
"I missed this," Shanygn said softly, expressing his thoughts.   
He smiled down at his Interface partner. "Me too."   
There were only the two of them. No one else had been granted this 'visa'. And if it hadn't been for Project and Ian McCormack's persistence, maybe not even then.   
"Rodimus Prime?" he looked down at a human walking up to him. It was a man in his mid-fifties, not in uniform, wearing a pleasant smile. "I'm Ian McCormack, head of Project." He looked around. "Wasn't Midnight or Wild Card supposed to be with you?"   
"Wild Card already went back after dropping me off," the Autobots' second-in-command explained. "This is delicate enough as it is. I don't want to risk an incident."   
McCormack nodded, then smiled at Shanygn. "You must be Shanygn. Heard a lot about you."   
"I hope only the good things."   
"I only listen to the good things," he joked, the lead then inside the warehouse-like building.   
Rodimus knew why they were here, though not every detail. What he had heard had bordered to the insane and he hoped only a small part of it would prove to be true.   
McCormack had contacted Optimus Prime about two months ago, a year after the Daemon incident. Nothing had been heard from the strange Sentinel since and though McCormack kept a steady flow of information going to Cybertron, being one of the few humans in official positions who was pro-Cybertronian, he had never much talked about Daemon and Dr. Rhyan Masters. The few times he had it had been general chat, nothing specific. Until those two months ago nothing ground-breaking had occurred. Earth was struggling with the ACL influence and political situations all over the planet were unstable. Some countries had declared the Anti Cybertronian League an illegal party, others had simply started to tear them down from the inside, using subtlety and blackmail. And in the US-Canadian sector, the ACL was close to declaring an all-out open war.   
Aside from the political struggle, a lot more was going on and Optimus Prime kept himself up-to-date. He had several contacts on Earth, of different race, religion and position. They all had one in common: they were pro-Cybertronian. They helped their friend wherever they could and they kept a steady flow of information coming Prime's way. Even cut off from the humans' world, Cybertron had a good idea about the situation there.   
What McCormack had mentioned had nothing to do with politics though. Maybe a bit, but mainly it was .... yes, what was it? Horrible and terrifying was one way to describe it. An outrage was the other. It seemed that Earth had not simply looked into Cybertronian technology, developed it for their own purposes and rose from technological dawn to the top, no, they had also used their research in a way it made Rodimus sick. Rumors McCormack had partly confirmed over the last two months had it that experiments on humans had been conducted, trying to copy a process known as Interfacing.   
Humans had always copied and experimented on Cybertronian technology. They had built artificial intelligences, had tried to clone what an Autobot was. One result had been Nightbird. Rodimus, from reading the files, still believed her to be a highly intelligent machine, not just a simply robot, but she had not lived long enough to prove herself. The Decepticons had stopped all research going into that direction. The human researchers had turned to developing stationary AIs, computer brains running certain installations. Then the Sentinels had appeared and with them the Interfaces. Whoever had cooked up the idea of trying to copy that, it seemed that he had had success.   
"We still have only a few hard facts," McCormack told his two visitors as they sat down. "We're working on getting more. What we do have is someone blowing up CyberTek, killing five people, a dead researcher connected to CyberTek and probably a lot more targets and victims out there."   
 "What can you tell us?" Rodimus wanted to know.   
"Most of what I sent to Cybertron. CyberTek started to experiment with artificial intelligences. They wanted to create a being, a personality, mimicking yours. Thing is, they never managed. Their creations were primitive, able to learn but never coming over the stage of being very simple and child-like. They functioned but not as had been planned. Most of them were destroyed."   
"They destroyed self-aware creatures?" Shanygn asked, horrified.   
McCormack nodded. "Sadly so. But they never gave up. The experiments continued. We don't know what exactly followed because the records are both sketchy and in rather bad condition. It has something to do with further development of the old AIs, but we don't know what it is. Humans are mentioned and we believe that it means they tried to link the AIs with humans, but we're not sure. Whatever, it is the reason for the killings."   
"They tried to link humans?" Rodimus shook his head in horror. "Why? How?"   
"Ask me something I know, Prime. We're still trying to reconstruct the destroyed files, but they are badly burned and a lot is probably lost forever – unless we can find those who worked on the project."   
"Most of which are already dead," Shanygn remarked dryly.   
"Exactly."   
"So.... what is your plan?"   
McCormack sighed. "Well, right now we are tracking down the names on the files we could. Most of what we have are fragments of names and locations, and someone snooping around the ruins of the lab. Rhyan is onto the woman arrested, trying to find out who she is."   
Rodimus nodded. "Can you give me the files you have?"   
"No problem."

* * *

"Why are we stopping?"   
"I just want to get a cup of coffee, that's all. There's a coffee shop on the corner." Rhyan pulled the car into an empty slot and shut off the engine.   
"I don't know what your fascination with caffeine is. I can always do the driving if you want to sleep," Daemon said dryly.   
Rhyan chuckled, stepping out of the car and leaning on the driver's side door for a moment. "I know, partner, but I don't want to miss any of the scenery."   
Daemon fell silent, pondering that, watching his partner make his way to the small cafe half a block down the street. The name of the town was Raven's Nest, a collection of houses erected around a diner as it seemed. There were dozens of motels for truckers, even more parking slots for their vehicles and one very large filling station that was open 24 hours a day. Two highways intersected here and it was a busy, sprawling place.   
And it was the place they had traced the woman arrested at the CyberTek ruin to. The name given to the police had been Barbara Moore and the address had been in the San Francisco area. Daemon had run it through a check and had come up with more lies than could possibly fit on a single police report sheet. Barbara Moore didn't really exist. Well, she did, but it wasn't the young woman arrested. She didn't have a valid address, she didn't have a social security number and she wasn't who she had said she was. But she was traceable. They had been able to follow her through various means. She was not exactly working undercover, but she did enough to see that she was hiding.... running.   
Now the problem was finding her here.

The smell of bacon and coffee filled the diner. Rhyan let the swing doors close behind him, shutting off the noise of the trucks passing by outside. There were a few people in the diner, mostly truckers, none of them looking up as he walked inside. The room was a rectangle, a counter ran down the left side and vinyl-covered stools were anchored in front of it. A long mirror behind the counter gave the illusion of a much larger room. Metal booths lined the wall, the backs just tall enough to ensure privacy, but not tall enough to hide. Pictures of actors, famous singers and dancers hung on the wall.   
Rhyan went over to the counter and studied the menu. He wasn't particularly hungry, but he wanted some coffee. Caffeine was a part of his daily diet and Daemon always teased him about it. The server turned to him and asked for his orders.

Something about the stranger made her nervous. Maybe it was his posture, maybe it was just the general aura he projected as he strode confidently into the cafe and leaned against the counter. Keeping one eye on the man, she slowly began to gather her things, stowing the notebooks, floppy disks and laptop in her backpack. She couldn't afford to be reckless, and this guy smelled like bad news.

Rhyan watched the slender woman pack up her belongings out of the corner of his eye while he waited for his order to be filled. Her posture was stiff and he knew, instinctively, that his presence made her nervous for some reason. He gave her a closer look and frowned inside. Could it be .....? If yes, it would be a big coincidence.   
<Daemon?>   
<Yes?> The word was accompanied by a tone of arrogant annoyance. Rhyan sighed.   
<Check the image of the arrested woman against this> he asked his partner and gave him a mental image of the young woman.   
<The hair color and length is different, but the bone structure fits, as does the eye color and the estimated age>   
"That'll be $4.17, sir."   
Rhyan was jolted out of his thoughts. The server handed him a paper bag with two muffins, then the large cup of coffee. He paid him and picked up the back, slipping the cup in with the muffins. He flashed the man a smile and thanked him, then turned to look at the young woman again.   
She was gone, but a quick look to the door showed her just leaving, her backpack clutched in front of her as she rummaged through it. A few quick strides had him almost on top of her and she obliged him by stopping suddenly, starting to turn around to re-enter the small cafe. He collided with her.   
Her silence shocked him as her backpack fell to the concrete, disks, pencils, and two notebooks scattering across the sidewalk. She merely folded herself gracefully to the pavement, completely ignoring Masters as she began to gather the items and put them back in her bag.   
"Here, let me help you," he said, trying to sound non-threatening as he bent down.   
She glanced up at him, startled, her hands frozen, as if she hadn't even realized his presence. Rhyan knew something was terribly wrong at the expression in her eyes; fear and pain were deeply rooted in those pale, milky green depths. She looked hunted, like a frightened deer, and her pale skin emphasized her haggard face. Bangs of dark brown hair hung into her eyes.   
<She is afraid> he told his partner. <She is running, just like we guessed>   
"No... That's all right. Thank you though..." Her voice was soft, tremulous, matching her eyes.   
Rhyan smiled gently. "I insist. I wasn't watching what I was doing." He picked up a handful of multi-colored disks, handing them to her, then a drawing pad. The slight breeze had flipped it open, and he could see what was inside.   
"What is all this?" he asked, knowing that the detailed technical drawings were far from ordinary. They reminded him too much of the prototype blueprints for Daemon's systems.... "You designing something?"   
"If you don't mind, sir, I'm in something of a hurry. People to avoid, places to hide, you know, that kind of thing." She glared at him, holding out her hand for the notebook.   
Rhyan hesitantly handed it over, watching her slip it, and the rest of her things back where they belonged.   
"What are you running from?"   
The woman stiffened; he'd obviously hit a nerve -- and the truth.   
"Or maybe I should ask, who?"   
She began to tremble.   
After a long moment, she pivoted on her heel, regaining her feet in one swift move.   
"Look, mister," she growled, furious. "I don't know who you are, I don't care, and I don't trust or confide in strangers. It's none of your damn business who I'm running from... or if I'm running from something," she amended quickly, realizing her slip.   
"My name is Rhyan Masters. I'm working for Project, investigating the fire at CyberTek labs. Maybe you can help me."   
Her eyes had widened briefly at the mention of CyberTek and the fire, but now she was walling herself off again.   
"I sincerely doubt it, sir. Now if you'll excuse me..." She made a move to step past him.   
"No, I won't excuse you.... Ms. Moore, or whatever your name is." He grabbed her arm before she could escape past him and down the street.   
She hissed, wrenching herself out of his grip. She was trembling again, harder, and he could see fury and terror warring with each other in her eyes.   
"I don't know who you are but I know you can help me," Rhyan added softly. "Please....!"   
The next thing he knew was that she lashed out at him and he had had to duck not to get hit into the face. She used his retreat to beat a hasty retreat herself.   
<Daemon!>   
<I got her. She is running down West Street. Do you want me to apprehend her?>   
<No. Keep a low profile. I'll handle this>   
<Like you just did?> was the sarcastic reply.   
<Oh, shut up!>   
And Rhyan set out after their possible informant.

* * *

A crowd of people had gathered around the hotel building that was known to be a lowlife scum lodging. A police car was parked at the curb and a coroner's car had stopped right behind it. Right now two men working for the coroner's service wheeled a stretcher out of the building. On the stretcher was a zipped up, black body bag. The street people, who had gathered curiously around the hotel, craned their necks to get a good look.   
"Please stay back," one of the police officers instructed and pushed some spectators back behind the yellow police line.   
Another police officer walked over to the pathologist who had been called to the scene.   
"What do you think?" he asked and watched the stretcher pushed into the back of the hearse.   
"Looks like he bled to death. Not a pretty sight in there."   
"I know. I've been inside." He had indeed. Officer Meyers had been the first to be called to the scene and had been received by a hysteric girl and some numb looking men and women, mostly street people. The hysteric girl, as far as he knew, had been the one to find the body -- lying dead on the floor with blood everywhere.   
"Suicide?" Meyers asked. It wouldn't be an astounding news.   
The pathologist shook his head. "No. I don't want to guess around blindly, but it looks like someone ripped out his throat."   
"Whew." The police officer scratched his head. "Bad," he commented.   
"Yes, bad. I'll have more after the autopsy, so don't quote me." He headed for his car and left the scene.   
"Okay, keep back, fellows!" one of the other policemen shouted.   
Meyers sighed and went back to the task at hand -- finding witnesses.

* * *

"Yes!"   
Starscream gave a startled yelp at the sudden exclamation and nearly dropped the tiny crystal he was holding between his thumb and forefinger. Raven looked up with a triumphant gleam in her yellow optics and a wide grin on her lips.   
"Yes, yes, yes!" she repeated.   
"What?" Starscream demanded.   
"I did it! It's working!" the Key cried, exhilaration in her voice. At Starscream's slightly dumbfound expression she added. "The short-cuts!"   
His optics grew wide. "They are working?" he repeated.   
She nodded and he had never seen her that excited in all his life before. "We need to test them still but it's no longer sending error messages every time I try to run a test! This is great!"   
"But you don't know if the doorway actually opens. It's only theoretically working. You have not tried practice." A sneer appeared on his lips.   
Raven kept her smile, knowing where he came from. "That's where you guys come in. I did the programming, you watch the test run. Easy."   
"Sure," he muttered.   
"Whenever you are ready," a deep voice said with an audible smile and when Starscream turned he also saw the smile on the new-arrival's lips.   
"Then you do the dirty work and fight off whatever comes out of the doorway," he growled. "I have better things to do than get caught in a backwash of energy."   
Nightmare chuckled. "We are not accessing a random doorway. The pre-programmed destinations are safe doorways with friendlies on the other side."   
Starscream only snorted and left. Raven still smiled in total excitement, her enthusiasm not the least bit dampened by the other robot's display of pessimism.   
"Which doorways did you program?" Nightmare now wanted to know.   
"Arry, Viji and Tiera. They are friendly, we have teams there and we don't have to worry about instabilities." She motioned him over to the console.   
The console, a quartz cube, looked like it had been in battle with a robot spider and had been webbed quite thoroughly. Most of the wires and connections running to the cube were support feeds, some were back-ups and the rest Nightmare had no idea of. Whatever Raven had done to get the quartz cube to finally accept her programming, he didn't want to know. It had worked, that's all that counted for now – and the ability to copy the whole process if necessary. Nightmare knew that Raven kept accurate reports. She was meticulous about it and spent just as much time experimenting with the cube as writing down her findings and failures.   
"Okay, which one do you want to try first and when?" he wanted to know.   
"Pick one. And as soon as possible," she answered with a smile.   
"You go and get some recharge, I'll contact Rodimus Prime to tell him we are running a test on the short-cuts," Nightmare decided.   
Raven looked like she wanted to object, then finally shrugged and nodded. Nightmare watched her leave and then glanced at the control cube again.   
"Let's just hope this time it works," he muttered to himself.   
"You are in a pessimistic mood again," a voice said from down around his feet. He looked down and discovered his oldest friend among humans, Melissa Witwicky. "And I'm not even trying to read you," she added with a smile as if really reading his thoughts.   
"No, not really," he answered. "I'm just remembering all those times Raven thought it was working and it was nothing but a display of sparks and smoke coming from the back-ups or support feeds. We don't really know what this cube contains, only that it controls this centerway. Raven, as a Key, understands it as if through instinct, but she can't really explain it. We are toying with a technology far before our time and we hope we can one day understand it." Nightmare shrugged, realizing he was definitely falling into a rather pessimistic mood now.   
Mel smiled. "But you are doing fine so far."   
"Yeah, right."   
"Hey, you haven't blown up Cybertron yet. I'd call that quite good work," she teased him.   
Nightmare grimaced. "Don't you have someone else to pester?"   
Mel made a big show out of frowning and thinking about that. "No," she finally decided. "And Bat was asking when you'd be back and playing with him as well. You've been to absent lately, you know."   
He sighed. "I know."   
"So, how about taking some time off while Raven is recharging and spending some time with your friends instead of your work?" Mel asked.   
Nightmare looked at her and knew he was playing a losing game if he would continue to object in any way. "All right," he muttered. "You win."   
"I wasn't aware of playing anything," she said lightly as she fell into step beside him.   
Nightmare transformed and she took the invitation and climbed onto his back. "It's always a game with the two of you," he told her and fell into an easy trot.   
Mel grabbed a fist full of his mane and held on. "Purely your own perception of things," she chuckled.   
He smiled as they left the doorway chamber and made their way to the top. Sure.....

* * *

Alec Dawson was a very jumpy and nervous man. He walked up and down in front of the heavy desk and watched as his boss hacked some codes into the computer. He had intended to be here much earlier, but after he had heard about Zachary he had decided to postpone everything. Now he was so scared he had no other choice. He had to leave the planet!   
"Alec, Alec, don't be so nervous. You're walking a ditch into my carpet," the other man admonished.   
"Don't be nervous?" Alec nearly yelled. "Somebody killed Zach and I shouldn't be nervous? Hell, I have all the right to be nervous. The police doesn't even have an idea who might have done it. They might be suspecting me!"   
"Calm down. Maybe it was a mistake. Anyway, now you don't have to share the money." The man chuckled unpleasantly.   
Alec ran a hand through his blond hair and drew a deep breath, exhaling slowly to calm down. "You said ten," he reminded his boss.   
"And I keep my promise." The man on the other side of the desk pulled an envelope out of his drawer. He gave the envelope to Alec. "Count it. It's the correct amount."   
Alec simply pushed the envelope into his pocket. "I'm out of here," he muttered.   
The other man chuckled again. "Don't be so childish, Alec. It was a mistake that Zach was killed. It's a shame since he was a good man. Always delivered what I wanted." He raised an eyebrow. "Don't tell me you believe in ghosts."   
Dawson gulped nervously. "No, but I believe in old mistakes coming back to haunt you."   
The man laughed. "They are all dead, Alec. We know they are. And those who aren't are no danger to us."   
Alec walked toward the door. "I think I'll leave the planet for some time," he muttered. I don't want to be the victim of a ghost, too."   
"Do what you wish. You have enough money to afford a trip." That was the last thing Alec heard before he closed the door. He walked quickly down the corridor, wishing he'd have listened to Zachary when he had told him to leave CyberTek before it was too late. But it had already been too late by then, hadn't it? It had been a bad and stupid move. Very bad and very stupid.   
The thin blond man left the large building and turned left to walk down the street. It had begun to rain again and he hunched his shoulders to keep the cold out. It really wasn't such a bad idea to leave the city right now, search for a way to get to a space port and then off the planet.   
He turned a corner two blocks later, the street in front of him totally deserted. A shiver ran through him. He scolded himself for being such a child and spooking at the slightest things. The rain had increased and it was getting really uncomfortable now. Well, three more blocks and he was at the bus station. He would be able to get a transport from there. Suddenly he stopped. He thought he had heard a noise.....   
Dawson looked around, but he was really completely alone. His nerves were fraying. He was seeing things. He was totally safe. Completely. Utterly. No one was here but him.   
A movement. He saw it out of the corner of his eyes. His eyes widened, his mouth opened, but he was unable to utter a sound. Cold eyes regarded him passionlessly, then he felt a searing pain in his chest. A soft gasp escaped his mouth, then he lost all feeling of his body.

She looked at the heap of human limbs and her face showed no expression at all. She turned, steps measured, almost mechanical, and left the alley. The blood on the ground mixed with the rain beating down and thinned, washing away.

* * *

The small cafe close to the motel was all but deserted. A few truckers sat at the counter and drank coffee or some Coke. The waitress had left them alone after serving the orders. Rhyan watched the young woman closely, noted how tense she was, her face having a sunken in and haggard quality. Her eyes were haunted, troubled.... and now and then she seemed to be very far away, as if listening to something else.   
He had apprehended her not far away from this motel, catching up with her and finally getting her to listen. She was frightened, but not frightened enough to freeze on the spot. At least he had been able to convince her that he meant no harm and Project seemed to mean something to her, though not much. He had told her he knew about Mindsinger and that he wanted to help. Well, she had agreed to this place and Rhyan hoped to get something out of her.   
"Care to tell me your name now?" he asked softly.   
She looked up, startled to hear his voice. "My name's Cassandra Kyshradi. My friends call me Kesh."   
"I'm Rhyan, Kesh. I want to help you."   
"No one can help me." Her eyes closed tightly against some horrible memory. The silence that followed was almost deafening.   
"What did you look for in the ruins?" Rhyan finally asked.   
"Parts of my life," she muttered.   
"Your life .... with the project?"   
She nodded.   
"Where you part of it?"   
Another nod.   
"What part?"   
Cassandra bit her lower lip. "Capricorn," she then said.   
Rhyan stared at her. She was barely out of her teenage years! "We found hidden files. We know what happened," he finally said softly.   
Kesh shook her head. "No one knows, not really. You can't even imagine what it was like....." She stopped again.   
Rhyan nodded. "I won't pretend I can, but we need your help and we can help you."   
"No one can help me," she said fatalistically. "This is a battle I fight alone. But I will help you if I can."   
Rhyan gave her a grateful smile. He left the payment on the table and rose. "Let's go," he said. "Where are you staying? I take it you need to pick up your things..."   
They walked to the car and he opened the passenger side door. "I need to get back to my baby. She needs me," Kesh whispered as she curled up into a fetal position on the seat, her backpack resting beneath her. Tears streamed down her cheeks.   
Rhyan jerked his head around to look at her in stunned amazement. She was quickly losing control because of ... whatever....   
"Baby?!?"   
Kesh blushed, turning her head slightly. "She's not that kind of baby." She looked around at the interior of the car, taking note of everything. "Trust me, she's no flesh-and-bone creature...but she's my baby just the same."   
"Capricorn?" Rhyan asked.   
Kesh closed her eyes and made a little whimpering sound. Her body shuddered. "Yes....Cappi... She's my friend... and my baby... and she's hurting. I can't help her. I can barely stand it myself." She curled even tighter, clutching her knees to her chest.   
Silence fell inside the car for a long moment.   
"So, where are we going to pick up Capricorn?" Rhyan asked.   
"The south outer road east. There's an overgrown dirt road where you'll be getting off. I can't afford to stay at motels. Too easy to spot us."   
<Wonderful! Overgrown dirt roads are great for my suspension> Daemon groused, but only Rhyan could hear him. Rhyan simply voiced the same comment with a different wording.   
Kesh smiled a little, then rested her forehead against the door. "Cappi doesn't like it either. And she doesn't have a flawless transport vessel. I can't even take the time to repair her properly. Too dangerous."   
"Why did you never try and contact any of the pro-Cybertronian groups? Why not get help from there?" Rhyan's voice was searching.   
Kesh shrugged. "Doesn't matter where I go. No one can help me." Another shudder ran through her.   
"What happened?" he asked, concerned.   
She shook her head, unwilling to talk. He nodded, accepting it.   
 "That's the road, by the way," Kesh added. "The farmhouse is a bit over two miles down. You'll want to take it easy, it's full of ruts."   
She pointed to the entrance and the car eased onto it. True to her word it was extremely rough going, even for Daemon's suspension. She sat back, waiting, not very much at ease, but not trying to run either.   
Daemon let Rhyan slowly maneuver them down the road, keeping all his internal sensors focused on Kesh. She was deathly pale, her complexion rapidly turning rather greenish. Her breathing quickened, heart rate matching it. Cold sweat beaded her skin. There was fear in her eyes and he didn't know where it was coming from.   
"Do you get carsick, Kesh?" Rhyan suddenly asked gently, trying to provide something for her to home in on. It hadn't taken Daemon's remarks to turn his attention toward her condition.   
Kesh shook her head, then grimaced as even that slight motion upset her stomach.   
"Flashbacks... Panic attacks... Nightmares... They're... a constant..." She shut her eyes against the pain and moaned as images flooded her. "Stop it... please..." she whimpered. Her hands covered her ears.   
Rhyan reached over with one hand to try and comfort her.   
<I wouldn't, Rhyan, she's armed to the teeth and I don't know if she's aware of where she is right now> Daemon warned, cracking the passenger side door and deactivating the invisible security measures around Cassandra Kyshradi in case she needed out.   
Rhyan winced, letting his hand drop to the gearshift. His attention was torn between watching the road and Kesh, and Daemon obliged him by taking control.   
One more lurch over a rut snapped Kesh's control. Her body rocked forward with it, and she groped for the doorhandle. Daemon opened it for her and she scrambled out, her legs collapsing beneath her as she tried to get to her feet. Trembling violently, she crawled over to the side of the road and retched.   
Rhyan jumped out of the car and circled Daemon. He waited, silently, until Kesh had finished and knelt, arms wrapped around her stomach. "Cassandra?"   
Kesh whirled, and Rhyan saw that Daemon had been right; Kesh had lost track of her surroundings. There was an odd expression in her eyes, on her face, one he didn't like; she looked like an abused animal who wanted to run but was too injured to do so.   
"Cassandra? It's me, Rhyan. I want to help you." He took a step closer to her and noted the tremor that went through her. He took another small step towards her.   
Slowly, excruciatingly slowly, the wild look left Kesh's eyes and she blinked, shaking her head. She stood, her legs unsteady beneath her. "If you don't mind... I think I'll walk."   
"Not at all."   
Kesh smiled a little.   
Are you all right?" Rhyan asked.   
"As all right as I can be considering." She shrugged, then turned down the road.

* * *

Gryph entered the small, square room. She looked at the stone table in the center, then at the overturned chairs, equally made out of stone. A broken sword lay in a corner. Everything was small enough to tell her that whoever had built this guardhouse near the doorway hadn't been Cybertronian-sized, but they were still larger than humans. She wasn't even sure the stone was really stone. It had a weird consistency.   
She slowly ascended the staircase. After several minutes of walking, she came to a metal trapdoor with a ring set into it. She grabbed the ring tightly and pushed the door open, letting it slam into the stone as she quickly leapt into the area above. She stood within a large, circular chamber that seemed to be the top of the tower she had climbed. Large rectangular windows let in the cool air and you could see the doorway from here.   
Gryph wondered why this tower had been built. The Gatekeeper, Warlock, had been unable to answer that question. It had been here when he had been assigned to this planet millennia ago and though by the laws of nature it should be all but gone already, it was still standing. Volta was already busy with an analysis of the material it was made of.   
She left the tower again and walked back to the doorway where Warlock was talking to Spike. He nodded at her.   
"How much of this planet did you explore?" she asked.   
"Most of it," Warlock answered.   
"No sign of who built this tower?"   
"There was never any intelligent life on this world. And the wild life is meager." Warlock shrugged.   
"But something must have built this tower and I'm certain that the Veneran weren't the ones." Gryph looked at the doorway. "Too different from the doorway design."   
The Gatekeeper had to agree.   
"We'll set up camp and start on the closer inspection and cartographing of the immediate area," Gryph decided.   
Spike only nodded, leaving all decisions to her. He was only here as an observer. His own team was back on Cybertron.   
"You heard the lady," Warlock addressed the rest of the Protogen team.   
Gryph smiled behind her mask. She liked Warlock, able to ignore his strange looks and slightly frightening appearance. For all his freakish appearance he was a nice guy when you got to know him.   
She stopped.   
She inhaled deeply.   
Warlock was not Midnight. He was not a Sentinel, nor was he a Sleeper. They were not alike!   
But both were frightening at first sight.   
Both were completely different when you looked deeper.   
Gryph clenched her jaw. No!   
She turned and busied herself with setting up camp.

* * *

"Cappi?"   
Kesh opened the barn door, sending a whirlwind of strawdust up in the air.   
"Cappi, you know I can't come in there..." Her voice trembled and Rhyan wondered at it. Capricorn was claustrophobic, and apparently, Kesh was afraid of something... "Come on, Baby, it's okay. They want to help."   
A questioning burble of sound came from the rear of the spacious building.   
"Yeah, I know. I know. Why don't you come out here? It's sunny."   
"Uhm, Kesh?" Rhyan asked, confused.   
Kesh shook her head. "It's always like this," she said softly. "Come on, Cappi, it's safe. Promise."   
The burble became an exclamation. Then an engine started, and Rhyan could see movement in the shadows. Headlights split the darkness, blinding him, but his eyes adjusted and he got a glimpse of Capricorn – or at least the shell Cassandra Kyshradi had installed the AI in.   
She was small, smaller than Daemon, the car body she was in rather old and rusty but still serviceable. There was a crack in the windshield and one side mirror was missing.   
"Capricorn?" Rhyan took a step into the barn, wanting to see the rest of the strange car.   
There was a sharp, frightened squeal. Then the headlight died and the car jammed into reverse, her rear bumper hitting the wall as she ran. A shower of strawdust rained down from above.   
"Cappi, no! Rhyan, get out of there! You can see her when--or if-- I can talk her out! I can't go in there after her!" Her hand bit into his arm and pulled.   
Rhyan followed reluctantly, feeling the quivers racing along her nerves as she hauled him well away from the door. After a withering glare, she went back to the opening and knelt.   
"Cappi? You okay in there?"   
There was a slow, fearful moan, followed by a long string of shrill whistles. Her engine sputtered and growled.   
"You really can come out of there. They won't hurt you, I promise." The engine whined, but there was no other response. "Yeah, baby, that's it... easy does it... Come on, I'm right here."   
Rhyan judged it to be at least another half an hour, but Kesh coaxed Capricorn out into the sunlight, into the weed-choked gravel driveway.   
Kesh went to Capricorn's side, resting one hand on the driver's side view mirror, rubbing the edge of the window with her other. "Cappi?"   
A small, nervous blurb of sound.   
"She ... is a car?" Rhyan asked.   
"No." Kesh actually smiled a bit. "She is .... well, attached to a car body. It was the best we could do because I had to stay mobile."   
"I see." He gave the battered automobile a closer look, then shrugged. "Do you think you can either get her out of there or follow us?"   
She frowned. "I don't think you want me to do that, Dr. Masters."   
"Why?"   
"She .... just believe me that it's not a good idea to take her out and into your car. She might ... well, she might do what she is programmed to do."   
"And that is?"   
"Connect to the circuits inside your car and make herself at home."   
Rhyan frowned. "I see....." He didn't, but he also didn't really want to try it out.   
<She can't connect to me> Daemon sent.   
<How do you know?>   
<I would fight her off> was the slightly cool reply. <I can't be taken over by such a simple construction>   
Rhyan had to smile. <Well, I don't want to risk it, partner>   
"Is she able to drive?" he asked aloud.   
"I... I'm not sure." Kesh continued to gently rub her hand over the battered exterior.   
<How about we call Bandit and ask for a pick-up for out .... guest?>   
Rhyan translated that into spoken words and Kesh drew back. "No! No one else!"   
"Kesh.... he is a friend, not the enemy. We are all your friends! And we need your help!"   
"People always told me that. I'm tired of hearing about friends! I will help you, I will give what I have to you, but I'm not going anywhere where you can test and take apart and examine and...."   
"Cassandra!" he interrupted her more and more hysteric growing words. "We don't want to do any of that. We just want you to help us apprehend a killer!" Rhyan took a step toward her. "And I want to help you and Capricorn. Cappi is a child of Cybertronian technology and she deserves better then this...."   
Her green eyes blazed with anger. "What do you know about Cybertronian technology?" she demanded.   
<Daemon?>   
Silence greeted him. His partner was not inclined to help him here. Rhyan muttered an obscenity through the link.   
"More than you think, Kesh, more than you think. Please, trust me....."   
"I ... I can't. I can give you the information Capricorn has on the other Zodiacs, what we found in the computers before we .... uhm ..... left, but don't make me come with you....."   
"You'd be much safer there, Kesh."   
Their eyes met and he saw that she didn't believe him.   
"You said you'd help me," he whispered again.   
"And I didn't change my mind. I just don't want to go with you anymore," Kesh told him softly.   
"We don't mean you any harm!"   
"How do I know?"   
"Because you have to trust in what you see and hear," a well-known dark voice with an audible edge to it suddenly said.   
Rhyan felt the shift, he felt the change and he briefly closed his eyes, sending a silent thank you through the link. Kesh gave a shriek that was choked off into a gasp. She stumbled back, eyes wide open, breath coming in pants. Capricorn reacted almost the same way, reversing, tires digging into the ground and gravel flying up into the cloud of dust she was producing.   
"It's okay," Rhyan said calmly. "He is my partner."   
Kesh's wide eyes wavered from Daemon for a second to come to rest on Rhyan. "Partner?" she managed.   
"Interface partner," Masters explained. "Daemon is a Sentinel."   
Cappi burbled something unintelligible, tires spinning spasmodically but she wasn't moving.   
"Sentinel...." Kesh echoed. "Oh.... god...."   
"We are here to help, Cassandra," Rhyan pressed on again. "You have to trust me that we don't mean any harm. We won't deactivate Cappi, we won't hurt any of you!"   
She stared at Daemon, still breathing hard, then touched the exterior of the Zodiac. After a very long time she finally nodded, never taking her eyes off the giant robot. Daemon answered her stare with calm, red optics. He didn't have any particular expression on the visible half of his face.   
<Thanks> Rhyan sent.   
He didn't get a reply. Daemon simply transformed back into the car mode he so preferred. Rhyan got some strange sensations out of him and he wondered what was going on inside his partner. Daemon was not willing to even give him a hint, so he simply let it be. There was time for this later.

* * *

"We found a trace of the transwarp cells, Mighty Megatron," Ramjet reported. "They seem to have .....uhm... rematerialized."   
Megatron frowned at him. "Where?"   
"In orbit around Megna IV. We have located three of the missing five so far. No trace of the others. The recovery is currently on its way."   
"Proceed. Hook, Scavenger!"   
"Yes, my lord," Hook answered.   
"I want an analysis of those cells the moment they are back! And ready the Mainspeed for another test run!" Megatron ordered.   
"Understood."   
Megatron sat down at his station aboard the Apocalypse. "Five test runs so far and the transwarp drive is still not working," he growled.   
"What do you expect?" a voice asked from the desk level. "It's a new and experimental technology. All new and experimental technologies take time and they sometimes blow."   
Megatron looked down at the black cat. Sparks gave him a wide smile.   
"Hey, look at it from the bright side. At least this one didn't explode," she told him.   
He gave a low growl and swiveled his chair so he was facing the display screen. The last test data was on it and it was as depressing as it was informative. This time they had made the jump – it was just that the transwarp cells had jumped without taking the ship along. Sparks was right that this was the first time that the ship had not blown right after ignition or while accelerating to make the jump.   
"Go and chase a rat!" he hissed and shoved her unceremoniously off the table.   
Sparks landed gracefully on her feet and looked up at him. "Grouch." With that she walked off.   
One corner of Megatron's mouth lifted into what could be a smile, then he went back to business.

* * *

Rodimus Prime didn't know what he had expected. Maybe something semi-robotic, maybe some kind of .... computer program or whatever, but not this. Capricorn was nothing but a small, black box with removable panels all over the outside. She could slide them open, connect to whatever technical environment she was exposed to, and link .... use what she was linked to.... make it work for her. Kesh sat on the examination table, too pale, trembling, eyes fixed on the other table where Capricorn had been placed. They had removed her out of the old car after she had withdrawn her links and right now no one had any idea what to do. The car's circuits were in total chaos after the removal of the AI and it showed what those computers could do. Connect them to something technical and they would rearrange it to their configuration.   
"Please let her link to something," Kesh begged softly.   
"Like what?" McCormack asked.   
She shrugged. "Anything." At their expressions she added, "She needs it. Please! She won't hurt any of you!"   
Rhyan walked over to the small Mac computer and unplugged it, carrying the tower and screen over to the examination table.   
"Rhyan, not the computer!" McCormack protested.   
"Hey, it's either that or the microwave. And I, for one, like the idea of being able to warm my food instead of having to suckle on it." He placed the machine on the table.   
Almost immediately one of the panels slid back and a stinger-like extension shot out, burying itself in the tower. Kesh smiled and Capricorn hummed softly. More tentacles left her body and entwined the tower.   
"Thanks," Kesh whispered as she curled up in a ball, smiling as she watched her partner happily link to the piece of technology.   
"What now?" Shanygn asked the obvious question on everyone's mind.   
Yes, what now. They had a Zodiac with her partner, both alive and relatively well, but what now? Was she a key to catching the killer? Did she know the killer?   
"Cassandra?" Rodimus asked and she fixed her pale green eyes on him. "You said you could help. How?"   
The young woman got herself into a sitting position. "Cappi has the files we managed to steal before we ran. She can download them into your computer system if you let her."   
"Does she have connect to it like to the PC?" McCormack immediately wanted to know.   
"No, a Cyberspace link will do."   
The head of Project nodded. "We'll give her limited access."   
"Thank you."

* * *

"Okay, let me get this straight." Rhyan looked at McCormack. "CyberTek built artificial intelligences and tried to link them to a human mind? That's what those Zodiacs are? Sentinels created by CyberTek?"   
McCormack nodded. "As far as we could decipher the files, there were twelve of them, most of them dying after the initial connection to an alien mind. Those who survived are the ones we found in the lab computer. What those computer intelligences were supposed to do was link to anything of a technical nature, take over and ..... generally make themselves at home. The human would then be able to download whatever he or she was supposed to. Thing is, most of the earlier models went completely haywire, connecting at random, unable to disconnect, taking over whatever they could, from a PC to a kitchen microwave or a TV set."   
"And robots," Rodimus added.   
Rhyan looked at him. Prime looked shocked and disgusted. CyberTek had been a trusted trade partner, someone who had made thousands of deals with Cybertron's representatives and had come up with ingenious inventions of all kinds, had brought technology far before their time to human kind.   
And now that. They still didn't have all, he knew. Kesh had given them files about the construction, the idea, behind the Zodiacs, but she was still hiding stuff. It was a hunch. Something was missing and it was linking it all to the killings. CyberTek had tried to copy the Interfacing, but something else was there as well. Kesh refused an examination by a medic and he knew this meant something. But what?   
"Probably," Ian sighed. "You know what this means?"   
"They were developed as offensive weapons," Rodimus whispered.   
He nodded.   
"My god...." Shanygn muttered. "Humans altered to be weapons.... How much worse can it get?! Do we have any leads on who might be responsible?"   
"Someone connected to CyberTek," McCormack shrugged. "As far as we know all the Zodiacs were terminated, but some of the death certificates strike me strange. Could be that there are some of them still loose."   
Rodimus looked doubtful. "Then why hit now? It's been more than two years since the Zodiac project was closed."   
"Like I said, we have no real clues. All the people we could ask as witnesses are dead and those who might have seen something.... well, no one is coming forth."   
Rodimus sighed. "Dead end. But someone or something out there is killing people connected to Mindsinger and we neither know everyone involved, nor do we have a lead on who he or she might be."   
McCormack smiled dimly. "We have to find out or everyone dies."   
"But how?"   
Shanygn frowned. "Do you still have the restored files?"   
"Yes, why?"   
"Can we try to track down the names of the ones who didn't get killed right away? I mean, can we run a data bank search for matching names? Whatever?"   
McCormack shot her an incredulous look. "That's one big order."   
"One which we might be able to fulfill," Rodimus suddenly said. "I know someone who could do this." He exchanged a look with Shanygn and her eyes widened in realization.   
"Soundwave."   
"Exactly."   
"Who is Soundwave?" Rhyan wanted to know.   
"A Decepticon. His specialties are communication and Cyberspace and he should be able to track the data in Cyberspace. And maybe, just maybe, he can also recover the total truth behind Project Mindsinger." Rodimus shrugged. "Worth a try."   
"Connect him to the terminal and he follows the traces?" Rhyan guessed.   
"Yes."   
"I don't think Earth will be all too happy to have another one of you here. No offense," McCormack said.   
"None taken. We have to keep this undercover as well," Rodimus decided. "Soundwave is small when transformed. Midnight could jump in, drop him off and jump out. No problem."   
"Says you," the Project leader muttered and shook his head. "Do it. I'll get up some cover operation."   
Rodimus smiled. "Thanks."   
"And I'll have a little chat with Dr. Harry Randolph, the owner of CyberTek – among other companies," Rhyan decided and left the room. "Maybe I can get some things out of him."   
McCormack shrugged. "Try it. Good luck."

* * *

Kesh sat on the bed, knees pulled up to her chest, arms wrapped around them. Her body was wracked by tremors, it was cold and covered in a thin layer of sweat, and her eyes were screwed shut. Lines of pain disfigured her face and she moaned softly now and then. She felt her partner's presence but it was neither soothing nor comforting. It was pain, a pain she was used to and always had been used to since they had been joined.   
The implants in her shoulders and arms flared all of a sudden. Kesh whimpered and fell on one side, curled up even tighter. Her hands were twitching uncontrollably now, fiery pain racing along the cybernetic parts, making them burn. Her finger nails bit into her skin, tearing, clawing, ripping...... Finger tips brushing over metal.....   
Kesh cried, but not from the pain of torn skin. It was not her skin, it was artificial. It covered the metal parts of her body, those on visible parts of her body, like her hands and arms and neck. She had found a substance that was like skin and could fake human skin for days in a row until it needed renewal. Now she had shredded most of her last supplies of the substance and she'd need to reapply it.   
Looking at the dull gray and blue metal now poking out between synthetic skin she shivered. It was the source of her problems – it was most her main problem. The implants were killing her, in more ways than one. She didn't know the extent of the metal inside her. She had seen charts as a child and she had memorized them, but since then a lot had been added. Arms, legs, neck, chest area, the whole spine up and down, cranial area.... she was wired. There was a net of never-ending implants inside her and no way to ever remove them. They had taken parts of her own flesh out to get the implants in!   
Kesh felt tears gather in her eyes. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for Capricorn. She could live with the cybernetics inside her, but Cappi was another problem. She was actively linked to the machine, a machine that had slowly developed a personality and had grown to her. She was like a child, a baby, and Kesh's instincts told her to help this child. But that was what was killing her. Capricorn's nearness was lethal. She was sending out signals at random, upsetting Kesh's always very fragile balance and mental stability. In the beginning it hadn't been all too hard. She had managed, she had gone through the attacks of pain, irrationality and episodes of total black-outs. Lately it had grown worse. It wasn't really Cappi's fault. She couldn't control what she was doing and she was too primitive in her construction to change. She needed reconfiguration.   
Yeah, right. The next person touching either Kesh or Cappi would find himself flat on the ground, probably with a knife at his throat. Kesh would never be able to let a medic touch her. Never. A medic's touch was immediately associated with pain.   
Kesh whimpered softly. Cappi was a now less painful presence in her system, but she wished she had a way to shut her out, at least for a few moments. There was none, though, and there would never be one. She'd have to go through with this, at least until it was time to do what she needed to.

* * *

Daemon had never been so upset before. His encounter with Capricorn had shaken him severely and he was unable to get his composure back. She was a descendant of sorts, a primitive descendant but nevertheless something like a child. A child of Cybertron.....   
Memories from his short stay on Cybertron came back with a vengeance and he was trying to fight them off again without transmitting any of them through the link, upsetting his partner in the process. He wanted to deal with his past all alone.   
His thoughts wandered back to the Sentinels he had met then, especially Midnight who had offered him to stay if he wanted to, to come back even. He thought of all the Sentinels coming after him, the evolution of the prototype – him --, and of what the Quintessons had done. In his past confrontations with his own kind, the time he had been Synchrony, totally out of control and dangerous, they had hurt him. In fact, they had done far more than just simply hurt him. They had deactivated and effectively killed him. His body had been destroyed, but not his mind. They had kept him separate, locked up, a prisoner. His CPU had continued to function at a minimum level. Then came the silence. A long, brooding silence, unable to move, unable to see, unable even to think. His program was suspended the moment it was disconnected from its power supply. Synchrony had, in a very real sense, died -- and Daemon had been reborn millennia later. Part of him was and would always be Synchrony. There was no denying his past, but he had finally found someone again he had missed before: an Interface, Rhyan Masters. The human had initiated a lot of changes – most of all his change back into the Sentinel he had been before, without the raging, painful madness in his mind.   
Daemon pondered life -- his life. It had taken a sudden turn and he felt it was getting out of control. Well, it had gotten out of control the moment he had met Rhyan. His life had changed profoundly and it was still changing. His relationship with Rhyan defied definition. Daemon's basic programming made him loathe humans because they were a liability, hindered his performance and did not function flawlessly.

"You, as a human, are fallible."   
"Are you trying to tell me that you aren't?" Rhyan asked, smiling.   
"No. However, I am responsible for my own failures," Daemon answered cryptically.   
"So you are afraid to take responsibility for another one's failures," Rhyan concluded.   
"I do not fear this because it is illogical to take responsibility for anyone but oneself."

That discussion had gone on for some time and had left him very confused and with the feeling that Rhyan had somehow won it.   
Now Capricorn had entered his life and was making an even bigger mess of it than Rhyan had done all those years ago. But why? She was nothing but a .... child. Daemon growled softly. And in many ways she was special, just like all the Zodiacs were. They were a breed of their own, a mixture of human and Cybertronian technology, born to be experimented on, born to die. It made him mad, unbelievable mad, because it reminded him of his own birth, his own destiny.   
"Ready to go, partner?"   
Rhyan's words jolted him out of his memories and he pulled himself together, checking his shields. Nothing had leaked – hopefully.   
"Yes." He opened the door and the Project agent got in.   
"We'll have a passenger this time," Rhyan reminded him and he unlocked the other door as well so Shanygn could get into the car.   
"Thank you," she told him warmly.   
Daemon didn't reply.   
Their destination was ImageLabs, a company owned by one Dr. Harold Randolph, the same man who had owned and run CyberTek until it had blown. Maybe he could help them, maybe he would help them, though Rhyan doubted it as he had told Daemon shortly after the meeting. Randolph had done nothing to pursue whoever had blown up one of his companies, one of the oldest Cybertronian technology research facilities on Earth. He also hadn't tried to rebuild the ruin and he showed so much disinterest in it that it was suspicious, at least to people who now knew more about what was going on in there. To an outsider it appeared like he was writing off his losses and going on. ImageLabs was more or less the future of CyberTek.   
They left the Project facility and Daemon gained speed. They would be at Image Labs within less than three hours. He listened to the small talk between Rhyan and Shanygn with half an audio sensor, his mind too busy with his own memories to listen or contribute in any way.

* * *

The ImageLab complex couldn't really be missed. The large skyscraper with the golden glass front was impressive even when the weather was as gray and rainy as today. Shanygn gave a low whistle as she looked up the building.   
"Well, that's something you don't see all day," she admitted.   
Rhyan Masters smiled. "Yes, it's quite outstanding."   
Both walked into the building, looking in awe at the expensive foyer hall. There was glass, marble and steel everywhere, tastefully arranged. Light poured in through the windows and the artificial light of the large lamps increased the effect. It was really impressive. Rhyan went to the elevators and looked at the guide sign. When he didn't find any hint to where Dr. Harry Randolph might have his office he walked to the reception desk. Four people occupied the long desk, which had a slight U-turn. Monitors cluttered the desk and three of the four were guards. The forth was a young woman in a business dress. She smiled at the two visitors.   
"How may I help you?" she asked politely.   
"My name is Dr. Rhyan Masters from Project. This is my associate, Andrea Shanygn. We would like to talk to Dr. Randolph," Rhyan introduced them.   
"Do you have an appointment?" she wanted to know.   
Rhyan shook his head.   
"Then I'm sorry. Dr. Randolph only receives visitors with an appointment." Another polite smile told them that the conversation was over.   
"It's urgent," Shanygn insisted.   
"I'm really sorry," the woman said. "But Dr. Randolph never has any visitors without an appointment."   
"Maybe if you call him and tell him we are here, he might reconsider." Rhyan smiled. "Tell him we would like to talk with him about the incident at CyberTek."   
The receptionist looked doubtful, but picked up the phone and dialed a number. Seconds later she had a connection.   
"Dr. Randolph, I'm sorry to disturb you, but there are two people here who would like to talk to you. Dr. Rhyan Masters and Andrea Shanygn from Project..... yes, I told them that, Dr. Randolph, but they asked me to relay a message to you. They said they would like to talk with you about the CyberTek incident."   
She listened, then nodded and hung up. "Mr. Randolph wants to talk to you, Dr. Masters, Ms. Shanygn."   
"Thank you," Rhyan thanked her and nodded.   
"Top floor," she told them. "You can't miss it. There is only this one office."   
Masters nodded again and then both of them walked over to the elevators.

They really couldn't miss the office and like the whole building it was a representation of Randolph's wealth. Soft carpet covered the floor and the whole office was filled with precious furniture and antiques. A display case showed several old weapons and on one wall hung a large picture. The windows revealed a breath taking view over the city, which now lay under a blanket of clouds.   
Dr. Harry Randolph was a lithe man in his fifties, with full gray hair and a sun tanned skin. He smiled welcome at the two visitors and gestured for them to sit down in the expensive chairs standing in front of his large mahogany desk.   
"Dr. Masters, Ms. Shanygn," he greeted them. "What can I do for you?"   
"As we told your receptionist we've come because of the CyberTek incident," Rhyan said without preamble.   
"Ah, yes, an unfortunate incident." Randolph leaned back in his executive chair. "What about it?"   
"The lab was burned down by what were claimed to be extremists," Rhyan said conversationally. "The police didn't investigate very much, even though five people were killed in the fire. You were the lead researcher at CyberTek, running several projects that were so secret that no one can even guess what it might have been. You rose from head of the facility to business partner to owner." His eyes narrowed. "We found some very interesting facts. The lab wasn't blown by extremists, right? Something or someone from inside did it."   
"Whatever gave you those strange ideas, Dr. Masters?" Randolph asked, smiling pleasantly. "The police proved it were radical groups."   
"Maybe, but maybe they just told the public what you wanted them to know," Shanygn said quietly.   
Randolph's eyes narrowed. "What do you want?"   
"We want to know what really happened, Dr. Randolph, because whatever blew up the lab already killed two more people connected with CyberTek and narrowly failed to eliminate a third one." Rhyan's voice was hard and cold. "You, as the head of CyberTek, might be another target. You little experiments backfired and you are currently in the line of fire."   
"I don't know what you are talking about," the researcher told them coolly.   
"Maybe Aries, Taurus or Sagittarius help you remember," Rhyan said.   
"Please leave my office before I call security." Randolph's hand reached for the call button.   
"You can hide from reality only as long as it doesn't come charging through your door, Doctor," Rhyan told him as he rose. "And when it charges, I doubt you can stop it."   
He turned and Shanygn followed him. She had seen Randolph pale slightly, the hand hovering over the call button shaking a bit. He knew what they were talking about.   
When the door of the elevator had closed after them, Rhyan and Shanygn exchanged a look.   
"He knows," Shanygn then remarked.   
The Project agent nodded. "He's already scared and now he knows whatever killed the others is slowly mowing them all down, everyone involved in the CyberTek project."   
The elevator arrived on the ground floor and they left the building.   
"What now?" Shanygn wanted to know.   
"We're going back."

* * *

The house looming up in front of her was in one of the wealthier parts of the city. The outside looked new and recently cleaned with a big duster. White painted window frames gleamed in the light of the late evening sun, the glass reflecting the beams. The ten steps counting staircase up to the heavy wooden door was gray checked marble and the railing was polished brass. Twin lions sat beside the door, keeping silent guard.   
A blonde, slender woman in a non-descript outfit walked up the stairs and cocked an eyebrow, looking down at the lions with distaste. She stretched out one pale-skinned hand and pressed the door bell.   
The door opened a few seconds later and she was confronted with a man in a butler's outfit. The gray hair was immaculate and the black tuxedo jacket clean and well ironed. He gave the woman a short, but intense, look , then bowed slightly.   
"You are already expected," he greeted her with a mannered voice, which had a slight accent.   
She didn't answer, simply stepped in. The entrance hall of the house was large, stretching upwards. It was held in white marble, with a lot of windows which let the light inside. The carpet was creme colored and the few furniture pieces matched in color. An elegant staircase swung up to the second floor. The staircase was made of light colored wood, with a carpet on it. Pictures decorated the walls, all of them bright and cheery, but not too oppressively. All in all the entrance hall spelled 'money' all over the house, in big letters. Very big letters.   
"Angel, my dear!" a voice called and someone walked up to her.   
It was a man in his late fifties, his hairline already receding to the far side of his head. He was clad in a dark blue robe and slippers, holding a thin cigarette in one hand. "How nice of you to respond so quickly to my summoning." He smiled charmingly.   
"No one summons me, Lind," the woman said, voice flat, emotionless.   
"Of course not." His smile never wavered and he gestured at the butler that he could leave. "I heard about your little revenge scheme."   
She cocked her head, giving him a calculating look. "It is neither little, nor is it revenge. It is justice."   
Bertrand Lind still smiled, though his eyes didn't show any humor. "Why did you ask to see me?" he then wanted to know. "Surely I'm on your list of justice as well."   
Angel smiled but it was nothing but a movement of her lips. The rest of her face was a mask. "Your time will come, Lind, sooner or later, but it won't be me taking your life."   
"And that is supposed to be reassuring? Why are you here, Angel?"   
"You have the files. I want them."   
"What makes you think I have them?"   
The smile stayed. "I know."   
"And you think I will give them to you?"   
"Yes."   
There was no threat in her voice, there was nothing at all in it. She was like a machine, a robot, with no personality. The tightly bound hair, braided into an equally tight tail, enhanced her sculptured, pale face, the dark eyes burning, the only sign of life inside her.   
Carl Lind looked at the slender woman, someone he wouldn't have considered a lethally dangerous and absolutely deadly. But he knew her, he had seen her grow up, he had seen her kill. Angel was not what her name implied. She was a killing machine.   
"Follow me." He walked over to the study.   
Angel followed, her steps measured, controlled.

* * *

Soundwave's expressionless face was slightly disturbing. Daemon, who rarely transformed -- close to never at all -- was expressionless in a way as well, but not like that. Rhyan shook himself out of watching the newly-arrived Decepticon. He was their only key to what was in those destroyed files. He was supposed to be the expert.   
"I guess Optimus Prime briefed you on the situation," Rodimus now said.   
Soundwave nodded. "Affirmative." He looked around and discovered the communications terminal connecting Project to the next satellite. He didn't need a satellite, he only needed net access. "This will suffice," he said in his monotonous voice.   
Without further explanation, Soundwave simply transformed and a plug slid out of his casing, connecting him to the terminal. Rhyan shot Rodimus a questioning look.   
"We'll hear about his success or failure soon," the Autobot told him with a faint smile.   
Okay, so it was waiting now. Rhyan shrugged and walked off. As he passed by one of the offices he got a call.   
"Rhyan, this is McCormack. We got more bodies. Looks like whoever is out there doesn't stop for a moment."   
Rhyan sighed. "Who was it?"   
"Alec Dawson, technician, and Zachary Budinsky, also a technician for CyberTek. They were involved with Mindspring, though not deeply. Budinsky was found in the room both rented, his throat ripped out. Dawson was discovered in a small alley, shot wound in his chest."   
"Great," Rhyan sighed.   
How many more until they got the killer?

* * *

It was late in the evening. Music could be heard. It was only a single instrument, an electrical guitar, and it was played softly, gently, not in a beating rhythm. Shanygn poked her head in the open garage adjoining the Project main building and smiled at the picture. Rhyan was sitting on Daemon's hood, something he often did when talking to his partner. He had once mentioned that it brought them closer, physically closer, and Shanygn knew what he had meant with it. Daemon needed Rhyan Masters' presence – like a catalyst, a buffer.   
Rhyan had his legs crossed, his guitar on his lap and was playing random tunes which all came together in a rather melodious song. Shanygn liked it. The music stopped and a strange noise came from Daemon.   
"It wasn't that bad," Rhyan told his partner as he adjusted some strings on the guitar.   
"True, I heard worse but not much," Daemon replied sarcastically.   
Rhyan grimaced. "You don't have to listen to it, you know."   
"Even if I shut my audio sensors of, the sound waves are shaking up my circuits and I also have to listen to the link," Daemon complained.   
"Music is sound waves, Daemon, whatever music it is."   
"At least it is music."   
Rhyan raised an eyebrow. "Since when are you a music critic, partner?"   
"Since when are you a musician?" Daemon said evilly.   
Rhyan played a few tunes and Daemon gave a whine that sounded like something inside of him was dying.   
"Oh, stop it," Rhyan laughed.   
"When you stop."   
He chuckled. "Okay, okay, no more rehearsals." He suddenly discovered Shanygn. "Welcome to the Music Hall," he joked.   
"Where music just died," Daemon added dryly.   
Shanygn raised an eyebrow. Daemon usually fell completely silent the moment a stranger came close to him. At least he had so the last few times.   
"Well, it didn't sound that bad."   
"Thank you!" Rhyan smiled broadly and cast a look at the BMW.   
Daemon choose to be silent, but there was something like a groan coming from his voice box. Masters gave him a playful kick as he slid off the hood and placed the guitar on the next table.   
"Anything special you wanted to see me for?"   
"Not really. Just having a look around the facilities when I heard the music." She smiled. "You play well."   
Rhyan glanced at Daemon. "At least someone thinks so."   
Daemon didn't answer.   
"Care to have a guide around here?" he asked.   
"Sure."   
They left the garage.

* * *

She stood motionlessly in the shadow of a building, merging with it so no one would be able to really see her. She was watching a family through the partially open curtains of their window. Two people were sitting in front of the TV, a man and a woman. The man was about 50, the woman slightly younger. There was a talkshow on the program.   
She knew the couple very well; they were both former employees of CyberTek. James Craig had been the assistant director, the right hand of Dr. Harry Randolph, the administrative head while Randolph handled science matters. Now he was the manager of Eastern Division, another company owned by Randolph. His wife, Elizabeth Morgan-Craig had been the one of the caretakers of the children brought to CyberTek.   
Craig switched off the TV and he and his wife rose from the couch. He said something and she smiled, both of them getting ready for bed. It was close to midnight.   
She moved out of the shadows, her eyes holding a faraway expression, her face set into unreadable lines.   
» Target acquired »   
Angela Howard stopped in front of the building's entrance and looked up.   
"Moving in," she whispered.

* * *

Soundwave moved through Cyberspace with an ease no one would ever be able to copy. He lived here, he was part of this place, knew every pathway, ever intersection, every level. New parts were added constantly, but he felt the new parts, explored them in his time off, and he mapped them. Still, Cyberspace was a dangerous place full of unexpected surprises.   
Currently Soundwave was not experiencing any problem at all. He moved through the burned and rotten links that represented the files of CyberTek, rearranging things, digging deeper, moving layers away and discovering healed wounds. Cyberspace had a habit of healing while the real world links died. You could sometimes find information in Cyberspace you thought lost to the outside world. Not always though, mainly because the destroyed links set the string of information loose, letting them roam. Most of it got lost in the infinite realms. CyberTek's links had been burned and broken only a few weeks ago, a short moment for a Cybertronian and also for Cyberspace.   
Suddenly he felt something close by. Soundwave turned, but there was no one there. He was alone. Still... there was this strange feeling, this tickle running down his central nervous system, that told him there was someone watching him.   
\-- Show yourself – he demanded.   
Something cold and dark brushed around his ankles, but when he looked down there was nothing there.   
\-- Who are you? --   
» Who are you? »   
It was like an echo, a cold, metallic echo, totally flat. It wasn't a computer voice, though. It was human. And something took shape. It was definitely human, a female human, slender, pale skinned, piercing dark eyes, a tightly bound pony tail of white-blonde hair falling down between her shoulder blades, and dressed in a kind of overall. But then there was strange kind of shadow just behind her, like a black mirror image of the woman. Soundwave frowned slightly as he tried to identify this second person. He was unable to.   
\-- My name is Soundwave -- he answered her.   
Her face showed no emotions. » You are treading on dangerous ground, Soundwave » she told him. » This is not where you want to be »   
\-- Why? --   
» Leave » she only said.   
\-- Explain why -- Soundwave looked at her. – Who are you? --   
» Justice » she whispered. » And by being here, you obstruct justice »   
\-- Justice? Define --   
» Mine »   
Soundwave stumbled back as a bolt of lightning hit him, pain spreading from the area. He was confused and curiously surprised that he felt this much pain in a virtual reality, but the thought was erased when something whirled him around and slammed him against a wall.   
\-- Why are you doing this? -- he asked.   
» Justice »

Soundwave's red optic visor flared into life and the programs keeping an eye on the activity inside his CPU every time he went into Cyberspace shrilled in alarm. The scream coming a second later was almost enough to shatter glass. The Decepticon communications expert felt a tremor pass through him, a totally unexpected feeling. He had been attacked in Cyberspace before, but never like this. This human had shown no emotion. She had been cold as ice, to use a human phrase.   
Who was she?

* * *

The place was dark and dusty, an old storage facility, hidden in the middle of nowhere. No one came here. It was a blank spot on any map. The highway went by miles away and the dirt road leading here was off limits to unauthorized personnel. From the outside the area was nothing but dry, bare land, a few crippled trees and bushes growing here or there. There were no animals except bugs and maybe a bird or two, but otherwise everything was completely dead.   
She smiled. Yes, dead. Except for something inside the facility. She walked past the warning signs of what would happen if she continued her trespassing and arrived at the locked entrance to the storage. She typed in the correct access code, used the security card she had gotten from Lind and waited for the ancient computer system to clear her. The door clicked open and she entered.   
The place was dark, all power off except for one room. Without bothering to switch on the lights she walked to the door behind which she knew was what she had come here for. The door proved to be no obstacle either and she looked at the high-tech machinery occupying most of the room, the machinery that gave life to the single occupant.   
She approached the giant cylinder, giving it an appreciative look. It was smooth, dark, frosted slightly with ice. The temperature in the room was below freezing but she didn't mind the discomfort. She didn't feel any discomfort at all. She then turned and walked over to the seemingly dead computer terminal. With a few flicks of switches it hummed with life again and she smiled. It was a smile as cold as the room temperature. She started to type in some kind code and the machinery behind her started to hum as well.   
Soon.   
Very soon.   
Sitting back she contemplated what had happened in Cyberspace. She had not expected anyone to go looking for the files there and she had been surprised to find it was a Cybertronian. She didn't know how much he had been able to recover before she had forced him out of that level. He had gone without much of a fight, which showed her more than any other proof that he most likely had what he had come here for.   
That represented a problem.   
But through his presence she had been able to see where he had gone when he had fled. It was a facility not far from here, something called Project. And they seemed to have more information on them.... too much for their own good. She couldn't allow any information to exist. Everything needed to be purged.

* * *

"Oh .... my..... God...."   
"Great Cybertron!" Rodimus exclaimed nearly simultaneously. "Are you sure about this?"   
"Positive," Soundwave replied.   
The Autobots' second had to sit down, his optics still pinned to the screen where the restored data was displayed.   
Project Mindsinger – a horror story. They had known about the experiments to link a human to a machine, but not the extent of it all. First there had been experiments on grown-ups, sticking electrodes to their skin, hooking them up to the machine, but never had there been implants. Then those had followed when the external connection had failed. Most of the subjects, the humans, had died because their systems had overloaded with the stress. CyberTek had then changed their approach and used children. Orphans. Street kids. Runaways. Whoever no one would miss or look for. The kids had been surgically altered, had received implants and more, and they had grown up with the machine inside their body. And then they had been connected to the Zodiacs. Many had still died, unable to take another mind close to theirs, a cold mind without a personality of its own, a computer program. Those who had survived had grown and with them the machine -- that was Project Mindsinger.   
"This is .... I can't find an appropriate word for it," Rodimus whispered.   
Shanygn made a sick little noise in the back of her throat and Rodimus immediately reached out for her with his mind. He knew this was affecting her more than she let on at the moment, reminding her of her own past.   
[It's.... it's okay] she whispered, resting one hand against his leg as if for support. [I'm just thinking about Kesh... what she went through]   
He nodded slightly. Yes, what she had been through, and what the others had been through. It was the best reason for revenge: a stolen childhood, years of pain, of isolation, of growing up in labs under constant surveillance, seeing your friends die, dying yourself as you connected to a cold machine.... Rodimus winced as those thoughts came and presented him with Interfacing.   
[Roddy, no, stop that] Shanygn whispered in his mind. [Interfacing is not like that and you know it. It's not cruel or forced or painful! You are not like any of those AIs!]   
He shivered slightly. Yes, it was different. It wasn't like what he and Shanygn shared. Or Rhyan and Daemon, though he wasn't so sure about those two. Daemon was not your normal Interface partner and the partnership was based on something else but Interfacing.   
"Give me a list of the names you tracked down," Rodimus now addressed Soundwave. The Decepticon handed him a small disk and he nodded. "Thank you."   
Soundwave left without further comment and Rodimus sat down, the disk between his thumb and forefinger.   
"Roddy?"   
He looked down at his partner. Shanygn's eyes seemed unnaturally bright with a dark shadow in them. He had known her for a long time and he knew how to read her.   
"I'm fine," he said softly, smiling.   
"Sure?"   
He nodded.   
"Give me a lift?" she asked.   
Rodimus picked her carefully up and placed her next to the computer. Then he inserted the disk and started paging though the information, looking for names, addresses, locations and more.

* * *

Joe Amron was a large man, topping seven feet, and built like a wrestler. His light brown hair was cropped shot, almost like a military crew cut, his features broad, slightly square, the eyes a liquid brown and narrow. Shanygn guessed he was a terrifying opponent and sparring partner and thought he was representing his Zodiac with all honors. What was even more terrifying was the fact that this large man was confined to a wheelchair, his eyes holding an empty look, the meaty, big hands resting in his lap. He seemed to be far, far away with his thoughts. She knew from the recovered files that he was in his early twenties but he looked more like forty.   
When she approached, Amron looked up, an expression of polite interest in his face.   
"Mr. Amron?" she asked.   
He nodded. "Call me Joe," he told her. His voice was soft, not really fitting his appearance. "Everyone does."   
"My name is Shanygn. I am investigating several murders connected to Project Mindsinger." His liquid brown eyes looked a notch more curious. "I think you might be able to help me. It was very hard to track you down."   
Amron nodded. "Who do you work for, Ms. Shanygn?" he wanted to know.   
"Currently I'm helping Project find the killer of several humans here on Earth, but I am with Rodimus Prime...."   
"Autobot," Amron whispered, interrupting her. The eyes turned more intense. "Our home." A faint smile of longing appeared on his thin lips. His eyes suddenly glinted wetly. "You are from Cybertron."   
Shanygn was confused. "Yes."   
"I wish we could have gone there," the man continued. "Just once....."   
"'We'?"   
"Taurus and I. She never saw the home that gave the key to her birth. She still sings of it, of her dreams," Joe told her, voice soft and reminiscent.   
Shanygn was stunned, but did not let it show. She sat down opposite of the broad-shouldered, big man. "Tell me about Taurus," she invited him.   
Amron's face lightened as if someone had chased shadow away. "She was my friend, my partner. We shared so much and we grew up together. She was an innocent and she was curious. And she was strong. By God, she was the strongest creature I had ever seen. The others called her primitive, but I knew her inner beauty. We were one. She sang in my head and we shared.... shared everything." Tears gathered in his eyes. "But she was not good enough for them. She was so beautiful and they didn't want her, didn't want us!"   
Shanygn was shocked now. She understood the words and she understood the deeper meaning. "What happened?" she asked, dreading the answer. Taurus' fate had never been mentioned anywhere.   
"They shut her down, killed her eyes, her voice, her ears, her touch. But they couldn't take away the song." Amron smiled like a child that had managed to hide something from his parents. "Never. No one can. She sings to me every day." His smile turned gentle. "She is with me and we will always be together, whatever they do. They keep me here and they will never let me out again, but I don't mind. I have Taurus. She is with me wherever I go."   
[Great Cybertron] Rodimus whispered and she briefly closed her eyes. [They shut down an Interfaced robot!]   
[Yes, and the human continued. Remember what the hospital files say? Amron is mostly catatonic, only now and then reacting to outside stimuli. I'm surprised he talked to me]   
[Maybe because of Project Mindsinger?] he hazarded a guess.   
She didn't know. "Joe," she asked the reminiscing man, "can you tell me about the others? The other Zodiacs?"   
Amron's face clouded again.   
Shanygn knew she had to be careful. "Can you tell me about those who were there when you left?"   
'Left' was a rather mild word for what had happened to the man, Shanygn knew. He had been put in a home, had been declared mentally ill, never to see freedom again. The implants had stayed though.   
"Please, it is important," she pleaded. "One of them is loose and killing those involved in the project. I know you can help us! Don't shut me out!"   
"Death happens to all of us," Amron told her in an almost philosophical way. "And they deserve death for what they have done."   
"I understand you, really, but this is not right!" Shanygn said intensely.   
"How can you understand the song? How can you hear it? No one understands what we were and what some of us probably still are." He shook his head.   
Shanygn looked at him, meeting those strange eyes. "I know the song, Joe. I can sing."   
[Shan....]   
[Don't worry, I know what I'm doing, Roddy]   
Amron looked at her, wary interest flickering over his features. "How....?"   
"I am Interfaced. I am Rodimus Prime's Interface partner. Maybe you heard of this, maybe you haven't, but I know the song, I can always hear it and I know what you went through, what you are suffering. Joe, please help me! Tell me what you know!"   
His eyes fixed her, searched for a lie, for deceit, but there was none, only the truth. Tears spilled now and it pained Shanygn to see this big man cry. She reached out and touched his hand, squeezing it. Amron was shaken by quiet sobs, not bothering to wipe away the tears.   
"We were supposed to be like you," he managed after a while. "But we never could be. We heard the song, but in their eyes we were imperfect! They discontinued those they thought unfit."   
Discontinued. She swallowed. Killed would have been another word for it.   
"Who survived?" she asked softly.   
Amron fought the tears down again. "Only a few. Capricorn, Sagittarius, Gemini, Aries and Libra were accepted. All others ....disappeared."   
"Do you know where they are?"   
He shook his head. "Many of the approved were discontinued later .... I don't know why. I was kept at the facilities for a long time after Taurus left. I heard rumors.... nothing more than rumors. I know they didn't approve of any of the results. We were just guinea pigs."   
Shanygn winced. Yes, guinea pigs, that was the word for it. "Did any of the Zodiacs ever display extreme killer instincts? Do you know anyone?"   
Amron frowned. "Many never lived to meet me. Libra once told me about Pisces. She came online and reached for her partner, but died from internal failures. Gregory was killed immediately. Of those alive.... Aries was someone to keep away from. We called him Ares most of the time."   
[The Greek God of War] Rodimus supplied helpfully when Shan sent a confused question his way.   
"He was dangerous. Always on the verge of losing it. Aries liked violence. He loved it. And Ethan, his partner, did everything to please him. I know he nearly killed a lab assistant once." Amron stopped and swallowed. "The reason why he was discontinued was that he damaged Scorpio so badly that they had to shut him down."   
Shanygn closed her eyes.   
"He was a pure killer." Amron sighed. "And Gemini. She was like a child, a lovely child, but her link to Angela changed her. It was so sad and Taurus wept for her."   
"Changed?" Shanygn asked carefully.   
"Angela.... she was cold. Very cold. She was remorseless, like a machine, and she never showed any emotions. We tried not to get into her way."   
"She was discontinued as well?"   
"I don't know what happened to her," Amron said almost apologetically. "I only know that she hated everyone, most of all the scientists. I think she was always in pain from the net." He touched his head. "When Gemini sang she screamed. They tried to help her but all help was only more pain."   
"But she is dead?"   
"I don't know."   
Shanygn smiled at him. "Thank you, Joe. You have been a big help."   
[Rodimus, get working on Gemini. We need to know what happened to her]   
[Yes, Ma'am] he teased.   
She gave him a kick.   
Amron now looked at her, his eyes holding a sad expression. "I wish I could have been like you. Taurus was a great person, you would have liked her. She dreamed and sang of Cybertron a lot. If only she could have seen it."   
Shanygn felt something inside her clench in sympathy. "Maybe one day you both will," she told him softly.   
His smile was that of a big kid's.   
Shanygn left, steps heavy, her mind weighed down by the enormity of what Mindsinger had been and still was. Those young people had gone through hell and some of them still did! Rodimus was a soothing presence in her mind but even he couldn't take away the pain she felt.

Joe Amron watched the blue-haired woman disappear. He smiled to himself, his facial expression far away again.   
"Yes," he suddenly said to himself, voice dreamy. "She is a singer, like us. She knows, she understands."   
A voice only he could hear echoed in his mind, speaking of love and friendship, of longing and of dreams. He was in his own world, a world of no pain and nothing bad, of only the song of another mind with him – forever.

* * *

"It's working." Raven's voice held a slight tone of awe and she glanced back and forth between the open doorway and the short-cut terminal, or SCT as Sphere called it.   
"It is," Nightmare agreed, smiling. "You did it."   
"Yes!" Raven exclaimed. "It works! Yes-yes-yes!"   
"Whoa, cool down, partner!" Nightmare laughed.   
"So now all we need to do is to copy the SCT, take it to he world we can reach with it and voila?" Spike wanted to know.   
Raven shook her head. "No. Each of the doorway teams gets a remote control. We still need to test that particular gimmick, but you should be able to open the doorway from the planet." She held up a broad wrist band. It looked like a modern art watch. "Want to try?"   
Spike smiled. "Sure, why not."   
"Mind if I tag along?"   
Spike turned and looked at his daughter. "Mel, I'm not sure...."   
"Oh, come on! Those planets have been declared safe!" Her empty brown eyes relayed anger even though they were blind and had been there for years.   
"Okay, okay, you are right." Spike took the portable SCT. "Let's go."

* * *

Walton Street was a small alley close to the main street. 1271 was a three stories high, very old building. The front was battered and not well maintained. The main door was brittle and hung in its hinges. Rhyan Masters stepped into the poorly lit hallway and searched for the name of Nadja Tschiang on the post boxes. Her name had been on the list Soundwave had recovered as well, associated with Project Mindsinger but not part of the Zodiacs. They had run a background check on her name, coming up with Nadja Stephanopolous, a highly skilled technician. She had been injured in a lab accident and was now confined to a wheelchair. She had married and moved to this house some months ago.   
"First floor", Rhyan muttered when he spotted Nadja's name. "Why should a handicapped woman live at the first floor?" he asked in surprise, addressing no one in particular.   
Daemon didn't answer the rhetoric question. He had slipped into his usual silence and was spreading cold and black shields. Rhyan was used to this and no longer as affected as he had been years earlier. Still, it was straining his mind when his partner was acting like this.   
He walked up the stairs to the first floor. Just like down in the hallway the light was poor and the corridor was full of rubbish and dust. He passed an open door and Rhyan glanced inside the room. It was completely dark and he thought he saw a small shadow scurry across the floor. He shuddered and went on.   
"Rick Tschiang," he finally read on a door-plate. "That must be it." He knocked.   
First nothing happened, then he could hear footsteps. "Yes?" The voice was male, accented and unfriendly.   
"Mr. Tschiang?" Rhyan asked.   
"Yes. What do you want?" The door had not been opened yet.   
"I would like to talk to your wife Nadja."   
"Who are you?"   
"My name is Rhyan Masters. I'm from Project and would like to talk to your wife about something concerning her job at CyberTek."   
There was a long silence and Rhyan thought he heard hushed whispers behind the door. Finally the door opened a crack and he looked into two almond-shaped, brown eyes.   
"My wife no longer works for CyberTek."   
"I know. I'm not involved with CyberTek. I'm investigating Project Mindsinger and several murders connected to it. Could I please come in or do you want the neighbors to hear it as well?" Rhyan asked reasonably.   
Tschiang finally opened the door and Rhyan stepped into a run-down apartment that had seen better days, though there was no telling when exactly. Everything was cheaply furnished and very old, most of it held together by good will and chewing gum, as it seemed. There was tiny TV in one corner, sitting on an ancient table.   
"What do you want?"   
The voice was cold and cut like a knife.   
Rhyan turned and discovered a woman sitting in a wheelchair. She had short cropped hair, large green eyes and there were hard lines around her eyes and her mouth.   
"Mrs. Tschiang?"   
"You see anyone else in a wheelchair?" she snapped.   
Rhyan tried not to stare. She didn't look like the woman in the file at all! This couldn't be the slim, beautiful woman with the shoulder length dark brown hair – but it was. The picture had been taken prior to her accident, about two years ago, and everything reminding of the lively technician seemed to have gone with her ability to walk. Now she was surrounded by an aura of bitterness and coldness. Her eyes were full of rage and pain.   
"I need to talk to you about Project Mindsinger."   
Nadja's eyes were suspicious slits in her face. "Why?"   
"Several people have died in the last weeks, all associated with Project Mindsinger, and everyone involved is in danger."   
"What do you want to do? Take me into protective custody?" she asked, sneering. "Well, maybe you should. It would be better than this dump!"   
Rhyan looked at the slim figure of her husband, searching for any sign that he saw this as an insult. He simply stood there, a passive expression on his face.   
"Mrs. Tschiang, someone involved with Mindsinger is committing these crimes."   
"Don't look at me. I can't even leave this hell hole!" she growled.   
"I didn't come here because you are suspect. I came here because you might be able to help me identify the killer. We believe he or she belongs to the Zodiacs."   
"I don't care who it is!" the woman hissed, her voice full of unconcealed hate. "Because of Mindsinger I'm in that damned wheelchair today! They can all die, for all I care! And as for the Zodiacs, they are dead anyway! Good riddance to them!"   
The hatred was like a living shield around her now.   
"Mrs. Tschiang......"   
"Leave!"   
Nadja didn't say any more, simply stared at the wall behind Rhyan. Without another word he left the room, nodding at the now slightly distraught looking husband. Rick Tschiang didn't acknowledge his presence, simply kept his gaze pinned to the floor.   
When Rhyan left the building, he inhaled deeply. <Oh, damn!>   
Daemon didn't say anything, simply opened the door. Rhyan slid into the seat and started the engine. They were none the wiser, but maybe knew a bit more about the people surrounding Mindsinger. He started to hate his own kind.

* * *

Rodimus Prime walked into the large hall containing the test space and the labs for projects related to Daemon, his optics searching for the well-known figure of Andrea Shanygn. She was sitting on a pile of old boxes and containers, looking a bit lost and alone, and that was exactly what he was also getting through the link.   
"Hi," he greeted her as he sat down beside her on the floor.   
"You didn't have to come," she told him softly.   
"I was getting slightly claustrophobic in there. Why? Don't want me company?" he asked playfully.   
It drew a smile from her, but the shadows in her eyes could not be missed. "It's terrible, Roddy. I never thought of what was behind it all. I mean, if you think about it.... what they did to those people... and we still don't know everything!"   
"I know."   
"Anything on Gemini?" she now wanted to know.   
"Soundwave is still searching Cyberspace but it seems that Gemini is not as dead as we thought she is. Her name is apparently Angela Howard, she is twenty-one and has no record anywhere. No social security number, no nothing."   
Shanygn sighed.   
Rodimus looked down at her and gently hugged her through the link. [They are not like you]. Surprised, she looked up. He grinned. [Hey, I've known you long enough, Shan. I know when you start flashing]   
[I didn't. No really anyway. It's just too damn close to what my world did to the handicapped. Here it is everyone. Not a specific kind of group, just whoever they could lay their hands on] She shivered. [How can any individual do this to another?!]   
Yes, how could any? It was like back when they had found out about their origin, the real creators of the Cybertronian race. Or when those same creators, well, not all of same, had started to hunt them for their body shells. How could any being hurt another like that? How?   
Rodimus dimmed his optics and sighed. He saw how it could be done every day, among the survivors of the Tji Wars, among other races, in the histories of some of the Interfaces, and here on Earth.   
"Rhyan is talking to Cassandra," Shanygn suddenly said aloud.   
"I heard. I think she knows more and can tell more than she lets on." He shrugged slightly. "I hope she decides to trust us with more than what she already gave us."   
Shanygn leaned back against the box behind her, closing her eyes. "Trust doesn't come easy," she whispered, almost as if to herself.   
Rodimus looked at her. She rubbed hand over her nose.   
"I know what it feels like, Roddy. I know what it feels to have nowhere to go, always to run and hide, that people you meet could turn you in. I know."   
"But you learned."   
"Yes, I did. It was painful, emotionally painful, it took some time, and I came a long way. It took me so much time that... well, if not for the Interface, I would have died afraid of the world and feeling worthless." Shanygn gave a half-shrug. Rodimus touched her gently. "It's okay," she added.   
"Really?"   
"Really. Let's see if Rhyan talked to Kesh, okay?"   
The Autobot nodded, accepting the sudden change of topic. He knew his partner was okay. She had come past that stage where she was likely to clamp up and hide her past. Rodimus knew it, had experienced in her mind, and he knew it had been painful, equaling the pain she had gone through in her life.   
They both walked back into the base, Rodimus keeping an optic on Shanygn until she mentally kicked him for baby-sitting her. He only grinned.

* * *

Rhyan didn't know how to start. He was curious and he knew that this might be important for finding out what was going on, but he was still reluctant to ask. Kesh had been assigned a small room of her own, a room she rarely left. She still refused a medical examination and he respected that, as did McCormack. Now he knocked.   
"Cassandra? Can I come in?"   
He stuck his head inside and discovered her curled up on the bed, eyes closed, shivering a bit. On the desk sat a PC, the very same PC Capricorn was connected to.   
"Cassandra? Kesh, are you okay?" Rhyan asked, worry in his voice.   
She opened her eyes and they appeared slightly cloudy. "Yes," she managed with a rough voice. She didn't sit up though.   
Rhyan stepped into the room and looked at the slender, pale woman, trying to decide whether that was the truth or not.   
"I'm just .... getting used to... well, new environment and all," she whispered. "Cappi... she is confused."   
"And it reflects back on you."   
She nodded.   
Rhyan sat down on the chair. "Kesh, I'd like to ask you a few questions. You don't have to answer them you feel uncomfortable, but we need to know a few more things."   
"Okay," she said warily.   
"How old were you?"   
Kesh looked at him. She was silent for a long time and he wondered if she really understood the question. "Six," she finally said. "They took me to CyberTek, not the building they burned down, another one." She smiled wryly. "It beat the orphanage then. It wasn't that bad in the beginning."   
There was a lengthy silence and Rhyan waited patiently.   
"But then they started with the ..... the operations...." she whispered. "First it was small stuff, like a circuit here or there, some strange wiring in your arms and neck. It hurt because it was a wound but it was bearable. But then it grew more." Kesh stopped again.   
"How much?" Rhyan asked softly.   
"Too much," was the choked out answer.   
He accepted it. That was probably the main reason why she didn't want a medical examination. She was afraid to see what had happened to her or to let others see.   
"Were all children altered?"   
"Some more, some less." She closed her eyes in pain. "Many died throughout the surgery. We were so many and only a few survived." Tears gathered in her eyes and she wrapped her arms around herself, shivering. "There were only twelve of us left...." She screwed her eyes shut again. "I killed him, you know," she said in a low voice.   
Rhyan looked surprised. "Who?"   
"Bobby. I killed him." Kesh's voice was soft and very quiet.   
"You took a life?"   
A nod.   
"In self-defense?"   
"No."   
"Why did you kill him?" he asked.   
Kesh's breath was ragged now as she tried to bite back more tears. "He was suffering. God, you should have seen him! His body was rejecting the implants. The wounds were always inflamed, he couldn't move, his immune system went down.... They always replaced stuff, cut his body apart, removed his own flesh to substitute it with cybernetics." Kesh's tears were flowing freely now. "He begged for death! He was no longer human! He was a brain in a piece of meat, attached to machines!"   
Rhyan couldn't believe what he was hearing and he felt little shockwaves from Daemon, who was listening in.   
"Bobby was so desperate. He was only thirteen...."   
<Thirteen!> Rhyan closed his eyes in pain.   
"I was eleven," Kesh went on. "Bobby was my best friend when we were brought to CyberTek. He.... he was always so nice and soft-spoken and ..." She broke off. "I killed him. I stopped the machines."   
Her tear-filled eyes met his and Rhyan was torn between simply leaving her alone, not question her any more, and take her into his arms to comfort her. He did neither.   
"And he died."   
"Not right away, but in the end he did. He was supposed to be linked with Pisces. I'm glad he didn't have to go through with it. Pisces self-destructed later when they connected someone else to Gregory."   
Rhyan inhaled deeply. "They never found out?"   
"No." She curled up even tighter.   
<Rhy?>   
<Yes?>   
<We have something on Gemini>   
<Be right with you>   
Rhyan rose from the chair. "Listen, Kesh, I need to check on something. If you feel you want to talk some more...."   
She nodded, averting his compassionate gaze. Rhyan left, deeply disturbed by her tale.

* * *

Ethan Keller looked around, his washed-out blue eyes taking in the sparse interior decoration. "Nice."   
"It serves its purpose," she said without any inflection in her voice.   
He turned and gave her a cold smile. "You haven't changed, Angel."   
"There is no need for change, only for justice."   
"Where is Gemini?"   
"Safe."   
Ethan smiled. "I see." He carefully set down the bag he had slung over one shoulder and then opened it. There was a black box in it, the casing dully reflecting the light. He gently touched it and there was an almost imperceptible tremor passing through it. "Yes, I know," he whispered as he gently stroked it. "Soon."   
"Everything has been prepared," Angela told him passionlessly. "We will leave by tomorrow."   
Keller glanced at the queen-sized bed, the only bed, in the room. His smile turned slightly more evil as he sized her up and down. "Enough time to have fun then."   
Her eyes reflected no emotions. Keller chuckled.   
"You really haven't changed."

* * *

"And that's what we have so far."   
Optimus Prime's image on the screen didn't show anything, no emotions at all, but Rodimus knew what was going through his friend's head. He had felt the same.   
"Any leads?"   
"So far only few. Soundwave mentioned that he was attacked in Cyberspace. By whom he has no idea, but he believes it to be one of the Zodiac partners. We think it was Gemini."   
"She has Cyberspace access?"   
Rodimus nodded. "Apparently so. We still haven't tracked her down, but Project has taken three men and a woman into protective custody who were formerly associated with CyberTek and Project Mindsinger. They denied their connections at first but after finding out that what we told them was the truth, they agreed."   
Optimus frowned slightly. "This isn't exactly really good news," he finally sighed. "There is a killer on the lose who has Cyberspace access, kills everyone regardless of position and we have no way of tracking him."   
"Her, if it is Gemini. We think so." Rodimus shrugged. "The only other possible ones are either dead or were put into stasis. At least it says that about Aries. He was locked away, the robot deactivated, the human put into a death-like state."   
"Did you check?" Optimus wanted to know.   
"Sandra, one of the Project members, is currently checking."   
"And she just came back," a voice interrupted. "Sorry to barge in like that, Rodimus," McCormack continued, nodding a greeting at Optimus on the screen. "Sandra went to that oh-so-secret installation. Someone was there before her. Aries is gone. Whether he is alive or not, or active or not, we don't know, but we have to expect the worst."   
Both Autobot leaders looked at each other. This had just grown from bad to worse.....

* * *   
Getting the body for Aries hadn't been difficult. It had been a simple operation, really. Now that he reflected upon it, it had been ridiculously easy, Keller thought. He dragged the dead weight of the truck driver over to a cluster of bushes and simply dumped him there. Inside, he felt the thrill his partner had gotten from the kill, his thirst for more, the rush of machine adrenaline through human veins.   
"Soon," he whispered.   
Aries was craving more, he needed more. Since they both had been reactivated, Aries had been a burning desire deep inside Ethan Keller's mind. The machine wanted thrills and it got it only out of death and dying. Carnage was a hobby of them, death was their trail. He didn't care what Angel had in mind. She could try and take over the world for all he cared, as long as there was death they were both satisfied.   
Keller got into the truck and looked at the box sitting beneath the dash. The truck was not exactly the latest model but it sufficed. Aries would soon have reconfigured it to fit their purposes. When he had closed the door, the engine came to life and the truck rolled out without him driving it. Aries was already in control.   
"Aries to Gemini," he called her over the com-link. "We are on the way."   
He got the usual, very brief and passionless confirmation and smiled. She would never change.

* * *

Capricorn had been aware of most of what had happened throughout the time between leaving their hiding place, following the stranger and now, and she had been surprised by Kesh's reaction to it all. She seemed to trust the people around her to a degree and Cappi was glad she did. She didn't want to run anymore. She wanted to have a safe place to stay, a safe haven, somewhere she didn't need to disconnect from one moment to the next and run. She was still not connected to a really good machine and after the robots, those who were in a way her ancestors, had found out what she was supposed to do, she didn't blame them. Using her partner's distraction, Capricorn decided to see if she could get a few words out of Daemon.   
Daemon was a very interesting personality, so very different from the other one who was also around, so different from the files she had read. He was cold, he was mostly silent, he never transformed and he rarely ever got close to the other robot. After connecting to the computer Capricorn had also started to update her CPU on the people around her, finding some very interesting details. And the most interesting details had been on Daemon.   
"Daemon?"   
No answer. She hadn't really expected one. Daemon never seemed very big on acknowledging anyone's presence, except for his partner's. Cappi had no mobile form and she couldn't actually confront him, but she had the com link.   
"I know you can hear me, so I'll just continue talking."   
Again no answer, just icy silence. Capricorn shrugged, as far as an AI was able to do that, and continued.   
"I read some stuff about you. It says you were a Sentinel called Synchrony once. Why do you have a new name now?"   
"None of your concern," was the flat reply.   
Capricorn smiled. Well, it was a reply and it meant Daemon was listening.   
"Maybe it is. I'm curious."   
"Curiosity is a killer of many," Daemon replied passionlessly.   
"A human saying, I know. But it refers to cats, not computers," Capricorn told him. "I read all the files about your past, Daemon. Why do you work with Rhyan now?"   
Silence.   
"You are constantly endangering yourself even though your file says your programming was self-preservation," she pressed on.   
"I am designed to protect myself at all costs," Daemon told her coolly.   
"Sounds like a recital. And you don't act like it."   
"It is illogical to endanger myself for anyone."   
"Why?"   
Daemon hesitated. "Why what?"   
"Why is it illogical to endanger yourself?"   
"It goes against my primary programming."   
Capricorn smiled, something no one could see. "But you are doing it every time you go out on a mission with Rhyan Masters. Looks like your primary programming was changed."   
Daemon was silent.   
"Isn't it like that?" Capricorn prodded.   
"I do not understand," he said flatly, his wall of aggressive iciness the only defense he had.   
"Oh, you do. You have risked your life to save Rhyan Masters about a year ago. It's in the files. You nearly got killed in the process."   
Again Daemon didn't respond.   
"You care and the files say Synchrony doesn't care. Are you really Synchrony?" Capricorn pressed on.   
Daemon growled. "Leave me alone."   
Rhyan, sitting in the small room he called his office when he wasn't out on a mission with the team, suddenly frowned. The link to Daemon was broadcasting strange emotions....

"So you are Synchrony. Or maybe you were," Capricorn went on relentlessly. "But why are you Daemon now? You work with and for humans and the files say you never had any regard for other life forms."   
Daemon's engine came to life, a low and dangerous growl of barely contained anger. His blue scanner was by now pulsating.

Rhyan slowly placed the pen he was holding on the table. Shanygn, going through some of the stuff Kesh had given them, looked up.   
"Something wrong?"   
"I'm not sure," Rhyan answered.

"Did they reprogram you?" Capricorn asked curiously.   
"No one touches my CPU!" Daemon hissed, fury quickly building up into a dangerous amount.   
"But your programming changed."   
"No!"   
"Why are you Interfaced? What is it like?"   
An engine howled and the sleek car suddenly burst into the lab, transforming. Capricorn was frozen solid, a gun barrel pointed at her. She was helpless.

Rhyan hissed as if in pain, erupted from the couch and exploded into a run. Shanygn blinked. What the....?   
[Roddy?]   
[Yes?]   
[Something's wrong. I think it concerns Daemon....]

Capricorn was very shocked now, feeling a quiver of fear run through her. Daemon's optics glowed a deep, blood red, his whole appearance predatory. He moved toward her in his almost noiseless way, then stopped abruptly.   
"Daemon....?" she asked and to her annoyance she heard a quiver in her voice as well.   
"Leave me alone," he hissed furiously. "And stop reading my files!"   
"I can read what I want!" she countered.   
He hissed darkly, his gun never wavering. "They are none of your concern!"   
Capricorn felt anger rise inside her as well. "You don't frighten me!"   
The blood red turned an even darker color. That was the moment Rhyan burst into the room, Shanygn not far behind him.   
"Daemon, stop!" he called. "What the hell is going on here?"   
Daemon's answer was a soft growl and several sensations coming in through the link.   
"Daemon, what's wrong?" Rhyan now wanted to know. Anger coursed through him, anger from Daemon.   
"What's going on?" Shanygn wanted to know as Rodimus joined them as well.   
"I wish I knew," Rhyan hissed, trying to shut out the sensations coming still through the link. "Ask Capricorn. Maybe she knows." Rhyan never took his eyes off his partner.   
Suddenly Daemon backed away, making Shanygn jump out of his path so she wouldn't get flattened, transformed abruptly and sped away. Rhyan rubbed his neck, feeling stings of pain from there as the link was battling signals coming from his partner.   
"Damn!" he cursed.

* * *

Kesh was trembling, feeling weak, her knees like rubber. Cappi was bouncing signals back and forth between her implants, most of them slight anger and confusion about her friend's and everyone else's anger and fear.   
"He wouldn't have hurt me!" the AI protested.   
"Capricorn, he was about to shoot you!" Rodimus told her, looking at the small PC with growing confusion. He didn't apparently understand why she was so calm about it.   
"He didn't mean to."   
"What do you mean he didn't mean to?! He had his gun pointed at you!"   
"He wouldn't hurt anyone. And it was probably my fault."   
"What do you mean: your fault? What did you do?" Rodimus demanded.   
"Talked to him," Capricorn answered.   
"And he attacked you?! For talking?" The Autobots' second shook his head.   
If Capricorn would have been able to, she would have shrugged. Now she only said, "It wasn't an attack," again.   
"So what would you call it?" Ian McCormack now wanted to know.   
"He was protesting."   
The head of Project rolled her eyes.   
"I was digging," Capricorn admitted softly.   
Kesh closed her eyes, shivering a bit. The backfeeds were growing stronger and this time there was no hiding them. Someone touched her and she nearly lashed out. Her trembling hand was caught in a strong, warm one and she became aware of Shanygn at her side.   
"Getting worse?" she asked softly.   
Kesh only nodded.   
"You should let them examine you."   
"No!" she protested.   
A shadow fell over and she discovered Rodimus Prime, whose blue optics held a worried look. "You need help. Both of you," he told the much smaller human.   
Kesh shook her head. "No, it'll pass! It always does!" She felt panic rising inside of her at the thought of someone having a look at her body.   
"What if this isn't one of those times?" Shanygn wanted to know.   
She was silent, turning her head away, unable to answer them. Cappi's confusion was still inside her and the pain was growing. What if it didn't pass? Then she'd have to consider doing what they had once talked about, but no one would hear about it now. It was the last resort, a choice she would make when the time came.   
[Roddy?]   
[I don't know, Shan, I don't know] he answered helplessly.

* * *

It was time. Their defenses were no obstacle and she knew how to get in. Ethan was ready as well, and so was Aries. The other AI was bursting to go into action. He wanted to still his hunger, he wanted death. She smiled coldly.   
She had seen the dark car leave and instinct told her it was one threat less. Now all she needed to do was execute her plan.   
Yes, it was time.

* * *

"Mind telling me what went on back there?" Rhyan asked, voice calm, as he leaned against the BMW standing in the middle of nowhere. He was glad it was in the middle of nowhere and not in the downtown area or some of the suburbs. Daemon was not likely to mow down pedestrians or ram other cars, but out here he had a better chance to talk to his partner without being disturbed than anywhere else. "And don't say it was nothing. Something happened and it nearly destroyed all we managed to build in the last months. Trust."   
"I ...lost my temper," Daemon answered, voice harsh and holding the well-known edge.   
"I saw and very acutely felt that, but why? Was it something Capricorn said?"   
"Yes."   
"What was it?" Rhyan prodded.   
"Unimportant."   
"It is important if it affects you like that! Daemon, you nearly shot her! And then you ran!"   
"I did not run away. I merely increased the distance between us," Daemon stated matter-of-factly.   
"Same thing. What did she do?" the driver wanted to know again.   
Daemon was silent for a while. He seemed to ponder what to answer and finally decided for the truth. He didn't want to lie to Rhyan.   
"She ... dug around in my past," he answered, voice softer than before. "She asked me ...things."   
"What things?"   
"About me and what I was."   
"She had access to the files?"   
"Yes."   
Rhyan sighed. "Your past is your past and it sticks around. You can't erase it."   
Daemon was silent.   
"I know you don't like your past as Synchrony, but it is a part of you. You were and still are Sync."   
"It is none of her concern," Daemon grated.   
"And it sure as hell was no reason to attack Capricorn!" Rhyan added with a bit more force and anger.   
"I did not attack her!"   
"What do you call pointing a gun at her then?" Rhyan shot back.   
"I wanted to stop her." Daemon's voice had grown very cold now.   
Rhyan shook his head, his head still aching. This was growing into a fully blown migraine now. "Stop doing what?" he asked tiredly. "Did she insult you?"   
"No."   
"Taunt you?"   
"No. Rhy...."   
"No, Daemon, no. Your basic programming is Synchrony and it will always be. Everyone can read the files and everyone can find out. It's no secret! It never bothered you before, so why now?"   
"Because she had no right!" Daemon hissed.   
Rhyan closed his eyes and inhaled deeply as he felt tiny spikes hitting him through the link. "Maybe so, but it happened. She accessed the files and she discovered what you were."   
A spike hit Rhyan and he winced. Daemon's anger was piercing his shields and it was becoming increasingly more difficult to ignore the bio-links' throbbing in his neck. His fingers curled around the frame.   
"Why does it bother you?" he wanted to know again.   
Daemon was silent.   
"Why do you care?"   
"I do not," was the flat reply.   
"And I think you do. You don't mind Mainframe or Bandit finding out about your past, but you are going ballistic because of Capricorn. Is there is a difference?" Rhyan wanted to know.   
"Yes."   
Rhyan smiled slightly.   
"Why?"   
Daemon refused to answer.   
"Is it because of her connection to you?"   
"She is not connected to me in any way," he hissed.   
"She is based on Sentinel Interfacing, partner."   
"I'm neither a Sentinel nor am I Interfaced. At least not properly," he added, a bit of confusion audible in the enraged exclamation.   
Rhyan sighed softly. They had been down that road before. Daemon still refused to accept his Sentinel heritage, just like he refused to transform.   
"Daemon, this is stupid!" he growled angrily but Daemon ignored him. "You are what you are and Capricorn is what she is. You have to live with it and you have to accept it. In many ways what they did to her and Cassandra is close to what we share, but there is no pain involved, no forced connection, no...."   
"Shut up!"   
Hit a nerve, Rhyan thought. He sighed deeply and rubbed his temples. "Okay, let's try and sort this mess out back at the base. I hope they won't dismember us on sight."   
"I won't go back!" Daemon protested.   
"Daemon...."   
"I won't go back!"   
He sighed. "Okay, meet you half way: we won't go back tonight, but tomorrow we'll have to be home and face the music."   
Daemon was silent for a long time, finally he ignited his engine and opened the door. Rhyan smiled with relief and got in. Daemon set the gear and drove off.

* * *

Angela watched the activity around the Project building with disinterest, though her mind was working lightning fast on possible entry points, weak spots and tactical decisions. Project was highly secured, but not unbreachable. Ethan stood at her side, a hungry look in his eyes. Aries, parked behind them at the side of the road, projected quite strongly what he wanted. And he was not about to deny this to his partner. He had never been able to. Aries lived off these thrills of the hunt and the kill, and Keller got a good high out of his partner's resulting backwash of 'adrenaline'. They were both parasites and symbionts to each other and it was like a vicious circle. Every 'shot' made the need even greater.   
"We take the back entrance," Angela now decided.   
Keller shrugged. Fine with him as long as it meant destruction, panic and finally death.   
"Where is Gemini?" he asked, a question she had not answered him since he had woken and asked it the first time.   
"Safe," was the usual answer.   
He shook his head, wondering what was really going on in her head. Angela Howard was a mystery, even among Zodiacs, one no one could solve, but she was a good-looking one, no doubt about that. His smile turned slightly evil.   
"Let's go," he finally said and made his way back to the truck.   
She didn't follow.   
"Hey, Angel, what are you waiting for?"   
She turned her head and her hard eyes fixed on him. "We will go in separately. You will distract, I will infiltrate."   
Keller frowned, then shrugged. Angela could take care of herself, he knew.   
Minutes later the truck was on his way to the back entrance.

*

She approached the main gate, a single pedestrian, a human female. The two guards looked wary, but not alarmed, and she had to smile to herself. Fools.   
"Can I help you, Ma'am?" one of them asked. "Got a problem with your car?"   
"Yes," she answered, eyes taking in everything around her, noting the security camera.   
Gemini would take care of that.....   
No one saw the death of the two guards.   
No one saw the blonde woman walk unhindered through the gates.   
No one watched her disappear into the complex.   
The camera whirred and recorded, but it didn't see reality. It only saw Cyberspace.....

* * *

Rhyan Masters steered the dark BMW onto the small road leading to the Project base. It was late in the morning and he felt rather good. He and Daemon had camped out not far from the base, about thirty miles away in a small town called Elby. The motel had been okay and though he had first thought of sleeping in Daemon to give his partner a feeling of physical closeness and safety, Daemon had argued that Rhyan would be cranky in the morning because of a stiff neck and shoulders. And there was always the bionic Interface link. Rhyan had called McCormack when they had arrived in Elby and had his motel room, just to let him know where they were and that everything was all right. Ian, used to Daemon's sudden temper outbreaks and mood changes, had simply accepted it. After some breakfast this morning they had left for Project again.   
"Rhyan, I detect a high energy level at the base," Daemon suddenly said.   
"What?"   
Daemon activated his scanners. "Laser fire!"   
Rhyan floored the accelerator and the BMW shot forward. The moment he was over the hill he saw the extent of it all.   
"Oh my god!" he whispered.   
Something went up into a ball of fire and they saw a heavy truck tear through the flaming inferno. The towering form of Rodimus Prime could be seen as well, trying to hit the attacker. Rhyan never hesitated. Daemon raced toward the compound as he tried to contact someone, anyone, inside.

*

Ian McCormack had never seen Angela Howard before, but he knew who he was facing the moment he laid eyes on her. The impassive expression, the almost dead eyes, the pale skin.... this woman was more like a machine than a human being. Now those eyes were fixed on him, nothing readable in them, just mere tools to get an image of the one she was facing.   
"Ian McCormack," she said.   
"And you are ....?"   
"Gemini," she said, voice without any inflection.   
"You are Angela Howard, not Gemini. Gemini is the AI bonded to you."   
"I am Gemini," she repeated. "We are one."   
"One.... oh ...my .... god!" Ian whispered as the truth of it sank in. But, that couldn't be! How? When? "You merged!"   
"Correct. We are one." The dead eyes unnerved him. "Where is Capricorn?"   
"None of your business, lady. Why are you here? To kill her?"   
"I do not kill my own. Capricorn will join us."   
McCormack shook his head. "No, she won't."   
Gemini tilted her head a fraction. "You resist."   
"You bet I do!"   
"What a pity."   
She raised her hand and Ian saw a tiny projectile gun hidden in her palm. He just stood there, looking utterly surprised, his eyes wide open as he stared at the red stain on his stomach. It was getting larger and larger every second. One hand clutched the stain and blood was seeping through his fingers. Like in slow-motion, McCormack fell to the floor, his knees giving way as his brain finally decided what to do next.

Bandit had seen the blonde woman walk toward the inner entrance doors and he had seen Ian trying to block her way. He had been too far away to hear any of the words, but he saw the gun, he heard the shot over the raging destruction around him, and he saw McCormack go down.   
"Oh, god, Ian!" he whispered as he arrived at his friend's side, unaware of the continuing fighting around him, ignoring even the blonde woman who now turned her back on the dying man and proceeded deeper into the complex. He didn’t know what to do.   
Ian’s face was pale, sweat was starting to form on his forehead, and his eyes were blurred. He stared at Bandit with incomprehension. The younger man took the cold hand and tried to take it away from the wound. McCormack winced and a small moan escaped his lips. Bandit bit his lip as he saw the wet stain that was getting larger by the minute. McCormack's face was as white as chalk.   
"We have to stop the flow of blood." The voice floated over to him and someone pressed a piece of cloth down on the wound. Ian moaned again and his eyes closed, his body going limp.   
"No!" Bandit protested. He looked pleadingly at the man beside him, recognizing him as one of the paramedics around Project. "Do something!"   
The man checked McCormack and from his expression Bandit knew it didn't look good. Somewhere something exploded. Bandit shielded his superior and friend automatically.   
"I can't do anything for him here," the paramedic finally said. "He needs proper medical attention. I can only give him a shot against the pain, but he is losing blood too fast. And even then I can't say whether he makes it or not."   
Bandit looked around. Everything was in ruins, burning, charred, destroyed. He couldn't see the blonde woman, Gemini, and Aries was somewhere outside. He knew Rhyan had called to say he was taking care of the madman.   
"He has to make it," he now whispered. "He just has to."

*

Kesh looked at the pale, blonde woman confronting her. She wasn't afraid. She had known Angela Howard since they had been children and even though the other had always been cold and hard, Cassandra had never felt fear.   
"Let them help you," she now offered,   
Gemini smiled coldly. "Help me? I don't need help. I'm free and my own master. And so can you. It is our destiny."   
Kesh shook her head. "No, it is not. We never had a destiny. We were never meant to exist or to live or to function."   
"But we do. It is our destiny. They wanted us to be like this and we are." Gemini's eyes had a strange live look now. "Don't you see?"   
"No."   
"I'm nobody's slave anymore. You are. You conform to them and we were never meant for it. We were meant to conquer."   
"That's what you think." Kesh shook her head. "They used you, yes. They altered you, yes. They inflicted pain, on all of us! But they were wrong! What they did was wrong and what you do can never right it, Angela!"   
Gemini smiled and it looked more real than any other time. "I serve justice."   
"You kill people!"   
"Yes."   
"Why don't you want them to help you?" Kesh wanted to know.   
"No one can help us and you know it, Capricorn."   
"My name is Cassandra Kyshradi, not Capricorn. We are two different people."   
Gemini smiled again. "No. You never were and you never will be. Your fates are strung together; all Zodiacs are one. We are one. We are the future."   
Kesh shook her head, looking sad. "We are not superior, we are just different."   
Gemini approached her and Kesh suddenly raised the gun. "Don't." The single word was spoken with more authority than Kesh had ever been able to muster. She knew she had to act now because Capricorn's conflicting signals were slowly wearing her weak shield through. "This is not the way."   
"Are you with us or against us?" Gemini wanted to know, coming even closer.   
"I said, don't."   
"Do you think you can stop me?"   
Kesh looked at her, face straight, body rigid. "No," she answered honestly, "but I can try."   
Angela had always been stronger and she had been one of those children who had undergone a nearly complete cybernetic surgery. That was how she had been able to take Gemini inside her body. Angel was more machine than human, but she was still human enough in Kesh's eyes.   
"You are foolish."   
"Maybe. I can't let you continue, Angela. You killed, you destroyed, and you have obviously completely lost it." She pointed the gun at the other woman's chest.   
"You are going to die," Gemini prophesied.   
"Death does not frighten me."   
The blonde tilted her head a fraction again. Then she attacked.

*

"Damnit, he's right behind us!" Rhyan called.   
"His speed surpasses that of a normal vehicle his size," Daemon stated, trying to increase speed.   
They had managed to lure Aries away from the base, mainly because there wasn't much left to destroy except for the underground base. And he didn't fit. But he had done enough and it would take weeks, maybe months, to repair.   
Something struck them and Rhyan winced. Daemon gave a hiss of anger and pain. A laser had hit them before, loosening some circuits and disabling some more. Laser couldn't really damage them, but concentrated, high energy lasers could hurt and two prior collisions with Aries had done their share. Daemon had refused to transform and Rhyan had accepted it. They were a team and had gone through enough missions before Daemon had received a transformation. They could do this....   
Daemon spun down the highway, the truck in close pursuit. Shanygn and Rodimus were closing in, but they wouldn't be fast enough to help them with this. Rodimus had been distracted, had taken some damage, they had been separated and Aries was now close to winning this game.   
"No!" Daemon suddenly exclaimed. "My navigational data is in error!"   
The highway was coming to an end, a cement block ahead. Rhyan thought he now dimly remembered a sign saying just that, but he had seen it fly by so fast, he hadn't really seen it.   
"Can you jump?" Rhyan demanded, voice relaying the stress he was under.   
"Insufficient power."   
He swerved to avoid a crimson beam of laser fire. Rhyan saw only one chance. He turned Daemon 180 degrees around and floored the accelerator.   
"What are you planning to do?" Daemon asked.   
"Play chicken!"   
"Rhyan, do I have to remind you that we are currently traversing with an increasing speed of 60 mph toward a several tons heavy, truck? I do not think he will 'chicken out'."   
Rhyan smiled grimly. "Yes, me neither, but if we can keep him on this track, we can chicken out before hitting him and before he can turn, we have a certain head start."   
"Your logic does not compute," Daemon simply said, but he didn't try to take over control.   
"Thank you."   
But suddenly Aries stopped abruptly. Rhyan saw it happening, realized what was going to happen, but had no time to do more than yell. The trailer section was sliding sideways -- right at him – and then hit the front section of the BMW.   
Daemon shrieked, the links to his driver alive with pain as his front was crushed and sensory feelers exploded into agony. Rhyan, secured by the restraint system, was thrown against the restraints, the flung back into the seat. Dazed he tried to see what was happening, but his vision was blurring.   
"Daemon?" he moaned.   
A garbled sound could be heard, but the link was transmitting clearly. Daemon was in agony from the destruction of his frontal sensors, but the agony was also fueling rage. He managed to pull himself out from under the trailer.   
Ethan Keller had climbed out of the truck in the meantime and was walking over to the severely damaged car. Daemon hissed darkly as he saw the gun in the altered human's hands. He knew this gun could worsen the damage, mainly because his molecular shell was breached and the bullets could penetrate.   
"Have a nice death," he sneered and fired.   
Daemon screamed, his engine roaring up in agony, as the bullets cut a flaming path through his systems, though not hitting any of the important ones. But they did their share of damage and it hurt! He reacted out of a primal instinct as he surged forward, totally surprising Keller who had thought him disabled. Daemon swung sideways, hitting the human with the driver's side, flooring him. Keller was immediately knocked out, the gun flying from his hands.   
Rhyan climbed out of the seat, shaky, his knees feeling like jelly. The links were overwhelming him with anger and blazing rage. Daemon had a hard time quieting down and Rhyan felt his adrenaline levels rise. He checked on Keller, who was only unconscious.   
Aries' engine roared and the truck reversed, trying to turn and run Daemon over. The Sentinel gave a growl and transformed. It was painful transformation as his smashed front tried to follow the pre-programmed motions. Daemon hissed in pain as something tore up and energon gushed out of a cut. He went down on one knee, his optics dimming with the agony of ruptured circuits, but he managed to call his gun from subspace and he aimed it at the approaching truck. Aries had taken a lot of damage but he was still going and he would do everything in this body shell's power to destroy what he could.   
"This is the end of the road for you," Daemon whispered.   
"I cannot die!" Aries roared. "I will go on!"   
"Sorry to burst your bubble."   
He squeezed the trigger, the gun set on its highest setting and hitting the front grille at close distance. Daemon used projectiles, propelled by a burst of high energy, and the bolt went through the grille like a hot knife through butter. It exploded inside the engine compartment, tearing it apart. Aries screamed in pain as some of his tentacles were cut apart before he could remove them. Daemon didn't stop at that. He continued to send bolts of exploding shrapnel into the truck until the screams died down.   
The gun fell out of his hand as he went on both knees with a gasp. Pain radiated from his torn chest and his link was alive with confusion and a dull throbbing from his partner.   
"Rhy?" he croaked.   
Rhyan tumbled against his badly damaged partner as he transformed. The car's surface skin was scratched, the hood and most of the front section totally scrapped. This transformation had fried the last circuits.   
"Calm down," he breathed. "It's okay.... it's over...."   
Daemon's rage was expressed in a silent scream only Rhyan could hear. He sank down beside the wreck of his partner. He felt tired, he felt beat and this headache was killing him. He knew he was going into shock and Daemon wasn't helping. Rhyan heard someone approach and a car stopped close to them. Then came the familiar sound of metal parts shifting, of a transformation.   
"Oh my god!"   
That was Shanygn. Someone touched him, turned his head to check him.   
"'m...'kay...." Rhyan mumbled weakly.   
He closed his eyes, trying to calm his partner, who was slowly getting out of control. Daemon was unable to move, so his anger translated into frustrated rage at his injuries, at his inability to finish what he had started, and at everyone in general.   
<It's over> he whispered.

* * *

She looked at the body of the woman at her feet. Dead..... without live..... How had it happened? Cassandra couldn't remember. All she could recall was Gemini attacking her and then her world had blurred into whiteness. Now she was looking at a dead body and there was hardly any visible wound, except for some bruises.   
Kesh turned and walked down the corridor, feeling like an automaton with barely any conscious thoughts.   
It was over.

* * *

Rhyan stood in the silent room, looking at the almost peaceful man lying in the bed. Ian McCormack was dead. Blood loss, shock and severe damage from the projectile. Rhyan wished he could cry but he was unable to. Everything around him lay in ruins, his best friend was dead, and many more had died throughout the attack. Inside he felt devastated, empty, unable to do more than stand here and watch.   
He should have been here.   
He could have changed something. Even if it had been only a small change, maybe Ian might be alive now.   
"Rhyan?"   
He didn't turn as the doctor of the base walked in. He didn't want to leave, didn't want to accept that this was a good-bye. But he had to. His life went on, if he wanted it to or not.   
"Thank you, Mark," he whispered when he finally did turn.   
Mark Harper smiled sadly. "I wish I could have done more, but it was too late."   
Rhyan nodded and left without another word.

*

"Daemon?"   
No response. Capricorn knew he was able to hear her and she needed him to hear what she had to say.   
"Daemon, I'm sorry I provoked you earlier. It wasn't my intention," she said softly. "I didn't know you had such a problem with your past."   
"I have no problem with my past," he told her emotionlessly, acknowledging the link.   
"Then you have a problem with me?"   
"Yes."   
"Why?" Capricorn wanted to know. "What did I do to you?"   
"You exist," was the answer.   
She was silent for a moment. "I wanted to get to know you," the AI finally told him apologetically. "Since you didn't talk, I had to look at the files. I didn't know it would offend you."   
"My past is no secret."   
"Then why did you get angry when I read it?" she dug deeper.   
Daemon couldn't answer that. Well, he could, but he didn't want to.   
"Daemon, I need to see you. In person," Capricorn finally broke the silence between them.   
"Why?"   
"Please?" she asked. "It is ... important. For all of us."   
He hesitated. "Fine," he finally ground out.   
"Thank you."

* * *

Optimus Prime sat back in shock, trying to understand what had happened. Rodimus had delivered an almost emotionless report of the events of the last day and if it hadn't been for the troubled blue optics, Optimus would have thought his younger second wasn't feeling anything at all. Well, maybe he didn't, had shut out the pain, and was trying to understand it as well.   
Ian McCormack was dead. It had been the first shock. He had known the human for a long time and he had always valued his detailed reports, his support when it came to Cybertron matters, his friendship. McCormack had founded Project, had run it, had made it into an independent organization outside political circles. Now most of the facility was destroyed, people had died and there was no way of foretelling if it would ever be rebuild the way it had been. Finding a man like Ian would be hard, especially when it came to political relations. The moment an anti-Cybertron oriented leader would take over, Project would be lost.   
They had to wait and see.   
Then there were the Zodiacs. Gemini was dead. Her body had been found in the ruins of the basement and no one could tell what had happened, but many had guessed. The body was currently in quarantine and Rodimus wanted to make sure that it would be transferred to Cybertron for an autopsy. No one on Earth would get their hands on the altered human. Ethan Keller was also under quarantine. He had not regained consciousness since he had been knocked out and as far as people could tell, he was comatose. Aries had been totally destroyed by Daemon, the wreckage nothing but a dead metal husk. The AI was gone.   
And last but not least there were Cassandra Kyshradi and Capricorn. Rodimus had voted against getting them to Cybertron, especially since Capricorn had the power to take over whatever technology she encountered. Getting her to a metal world might be like bringing death upon themselves. Optimus had never heard these harsh words from Rodimus, but deep inside he knew the other Autobot was right. Capricorn was a lose cannon.   
The Autobot leader sighed. Rodimus wanted to be back within the next ten days and he hoped they would have a solution to this problem by then. If not, they would have to find one, one way or the other.   
Turning back to the paperwork on his desk he sorted through some papers and decided to give the new transwarp cells a closer optic. Megatron had sent him a string of reports that needed some reading. And then there were the ever-present requests from Below and the sprawling complex of West Central, not to mention that he had a meeting with Francine Woodward, the mayor of Strata-Mainframe. It would be a busy week.

* * *

Shanygn was alone in the kitchen/dayroom are of the Project facility, unable to sleep, unable to concentrate on much beside what had happened only a few hours ago. Rodimus was in recharge and she had no real function around the facility to help. Everyone was busy handling whatever it was anyway and she was only in the way, she knew. Suddenly she heard footsteps and looked up.   
"Hello, Rhyan."   
The answer was a mutter that might or might not have been a 'hello'. Shanygn watched Rhyan who, totally disregarding any other presence, grabbed the largest mug there was, filled it with coffee, heaped sugar in it, and stared into the black liquid like a hypnotized rabbit. Well a rather tired hypnotized rabbit. He looked like he hadn't slept at all and he hadn't even shaved yet. At least Rhyan was dressed, she thought wryly, though a wrinkled shirt and some faded jeans were the opposite to his normally rather well-dressed exterior.   
"Uhm, Rhyan?"   
"Hmpf?"   
"Couldn't sleep?"   
"Hmpf."   
"I see." She had to smile.   
Rhyan was physically more or less unharmed but his partner's injuries had reflected heavily back upon him. Daemon had received repairs and was fine again, but it still hurt. Then there was Ian McCormack's death. It weighed upon them. The founder and leader of Project was dead, the facility lay in ruins, six of the employees had died, many more had been injured and there was no telling what would be next.   
Now he rubbed his forehead. "Can't sleep, yeah. You?"   
"Just a bit wired. Even though Roddy is recharging, I can't really sleep."   
He smiled. "I guess we'll be dead in the morning."   
"Most likely. How is Daemon?"   
Rhyan sighed. "Confused, angry, hurt, annoyed. You name it, he is it. He still tries to deal with the attack, like all of us do."   
"At least it is over."   
Yes, it was over. Or wasn't it?

* * *

Daemon stood in the lab and looked down at the small box. Capricorn. The PC she had connected to was no longer recognizable as such. She had started to rearrange most of the outer shell, though no one had any clue when and how she had done it. The tower was a twisted piece of plastic covering circuits that no longer resembled that of a PC. Capricorn had done what she had been programmed to do and she couldn't stop. There was also no stopping her and Rodimus Prime was probably right with his assumption that she would soon try to spread out over the complex.   
"Thank you for coming," Capricorn now said, her voice sounding slightly tinny.   
"What do you want from me?" Daemon wanted to know.   
They were alone. It was in the middle of the night and after the attack, everyone was busy getting up the security systems again. There were still humans awake around here, more than usual, but no one was even remotely interested in looking into the lab.   
"A favor," she answered.   
Daemon cast her a wary look. If it weren't for the fact that he was severely disturbed by the events, currently very confused about what had happened, he wouldn't even be here. He had never run into an opponent like Aries before. A truck was normally nothing to endanger his existence, but a truck controlled by a murderous AI that lived off carnage .... it had been like a nightmare. There had been the real possibility that he might stop existing.   
He had survived.   
Somehow.   
A lot of people had died, many more had been injured and for some it still looked pretty bad. Daemon was glad his partner had only been slightly bruised in the whole attack. Still... too much had happened and he had to deal with it.   
And he had to deal with Capricorn.   
"What kind of favor?"   
Capricorn was silent for a long time. Then she finally said, "It concerns me and Cassandra. You have probably noticed that her physical condition is declining rapidly now. It's all my fault." She hesitated. "I can't stop projecting. Everything that happens to me also happens to her. We have no shields, no safety shut-downs, no nothing. In the beginning it was okay because I wasn't used to her and she wasn't used to me, but we have grown. Look at me, Daemon!" Desperation colored the tinny voice. "I need to connect and this small machine no longer suffices!"   
Daemon's optics narrowed. So Rodimus Prime had been right.   
"I need more and the more I'm given, the more I need. It's a never-ending, vicious circle!"   
"In what way does this connect to me?" he asked levelly.   
"I want you to stop it."   
Daemon stared at the featureless box, wishing there was a way to read her, but there was none. Capricorn was an expressionless, faceless, totally anonymous being.   
"Stop it," he echoed, not even voicing it as a question.   
"Yes. End it. Once and for all."   
Daemon took a step away from her. "I won't do that," he hissed.   
"You have to!" Capricorn whispered, voice begging now. "Look at what I am! Look what I'm doing to Kesh! They made me this way and nothing can stop me! I'm slowly but surely losing it and in the end I will be like Aries or Gemini!"   
"No!"   
"Yes! You can see it! Everybody can! Daemon, you are the only one I trust here and the only one who might understand me completely! I know you were an experiment as well and that you lived the madness! Do you want me to go through it? Do you want to see Cassandra enter the madness?" Capricorn asked remorselessly.   
Daemon flinched. "Cheap shot," he whispered.   
"Yes, cheap, but the only way. Nothing and no one can help me. You had help because you connected to a human after you were reactivated, but I was always linked to Kesh! I am killing her! And if I don't kill her, the madness will take her life!"   
He stared at the PC, shaking, mind racing. He couldn't.... It wasn't right! He wasn't a murderer, a killer!   
"Daemon, it won't be murder," Capricorn added softly, as if she had just read his thoughts. "It will be a salvation."   
"We could help you on Cybertron...." he argued weakly.   
"No, you can't. It will never stop. My hunger for more, to connect to more, will grow. I was intended to use my skills to take over one of your kind! I can do it, believe me! Taking me to Cybertron would be the worst mistake!" Capricorn seemed to be shaking now. "Please, Daemon!"   
He stared at her for a long time, his mind both a total blank and a whirlstorm of thoughts. He was arguing with his inner self as to what to do.   
"What will happen to Kesh?" he asked.   
"I'm not sure. Both of us aren't."   
"You talked to her about it?"   
Capricorn sighed softly. "We had this talk a long time ago. It is the only way out of our dead-end situation. Kesh knew where we were going and that it can end only one way or the other. After it became clear that we weren't healing, just growing worse, we both realized that one day I would have to die."   
Daemon shook his head. "Death is never an answer! Maybe we could put you into stasis! Wait till we have the solution for this dilemma!"   
"Daemon," she said quietly. "There is no solution. You cannot change my programming. Tampering with anything inside me could kill Cassandra."   
He paced the room, shaking his head. "I can't kill you in cold blood!"   
"You are not. I am asking you to do it. I can't commit suicide. There is a fail-safe program inside of me preventing self-destruction." Capricorn's case was trembling slightly. "Help me!"   
His optics were fixed on her again.   
"Please," she whispered.   
He watched as Capricorn withdrew her tentacle-like extension from the PC. The panels of the black box slid shut and she simply sat there, waiting. Finally Daemon reached out and took the small case into one hand.   
"Not here," he said softly.   
He transformed, transferring her onto the seat. He felt her shake with the effort to control her instinct to connect and he suddenly knew there was no other way.   
The BMW eased its way out of the lab and down the wide corridor, driving through the large test space in the main hall adjoined to the lab complex. He gained speed as he raced away from the complex. He didn't have much time, both because he knew Rhyan would probably soon pick up on him through the link and also because Capricorn was slowly losing her control over her own urges.

* * *

Sorrow.   
Anger.   
Bitterness.   
Pain.   
Denial.   
Regret.   
Sadness.   
A strong wave of conflicting emotions coursed through him. Rhyan bolted upright with a gasp, almost falling out of the bed as he flailed for a support, and finally did so. He was introduced to the floor in a very rough manner, feeling his leg hit something. From the feeling of it, it would leave a bruise.   
"Daemon?" he asked, voice rough.   
He blinked and tried to adjust to the dark room. It wasn't totally dark, but too dark to see anything clearly. He fumbled for the bed and pulled himself up, then switched on the light. His mind was awhirl with images he couldn't pin a name to and his body was tingling with strange emotions.   
Rhyan had finally gone to bed only half an hour ago and actually fallen dead asleep – only to wake up now.... by whatever.   
"Daemon, what the....?" he muttered and rubbed his neck where the implants sat.   
Three months ago the final implants had been placed and their connection had improved, though it had also taken a new turn through the Interface. Daemon could send different signals which translated into emotions for Rhyan and they had worked out a way to communicate with those implants and except for the odd day or two it had gone smoothly. When he choose to, Daemon could use something coming close to an Interface link and send and receive more. They rarely did this, but when they did, it ran much, much deeper than the implants.   
Until tonight.   
Daemon was sometimes likely to project a certain coldness, especially when in no mood to talk, but never like this.   
What had happened?   
Rhyan switched on the light and checked the nightstand's clock. 5 a.m. The tingling in his neck was spreading and with it spread a feeling of ill foreboding.   
<Daemon?>   
No reply. There was also no static, which meant Daemon heard him, but he chose not to reply.   
<Daemon!>   
Again no reply.   
Rhyan dressed in a hurry and ran down to the garage where Daemon usually stood. The spot was empty.   
<Where the heck are you?>   
Suddenly he got a picture. Daemon aiming at .... He frowned and concentrated. It was a box... small, black....   
"Capricorn! Shit, what are you doing, Daemon?!" he exclaimed.   
Only silence answered him.   
Cursing to himself Rhyan slammed a helmet over his head and started the bike. The motorbike left the compound at almost top speed, nearly running over Rodimus Prime's feet.   
"What the....?" Rodimus watched the bike disappear in the distance. "What is going on?" he muttered to himself.

* * *

Kesh stood at the window of the room she had been assigned to since the old living quarters section had been totally destroyed. Her eyes were fixed on the distant horizon. She saw the BMW head out and she witnessed the bike race after it a while later. Kesh nodded almost imperceptibly, then turned and walked to one corner of the room. She sat down, back straight, stabilizing herself against the wall.   
Soon.   
It would be over. Everything would be fine again.   
Very soon.   
A sad smile crossed her face.   
"Good-bye."   
Cassandra Kyshradi closed her eyes and waited.

* * *

Rhyan stopped the motorbike in a cloud of dust, jumped off it, ignoring that it slammed unceremoniously onto the ground and would probably sustain some dents. The scene he was confronted with something that made him ignore everything except what he saw. His partner was in his robot form, holding his gun. The place he was aiming it at was taken by a small, well-known black box. Capricorn. At this close proximity he could feel Daemon's thoughts, though they were still coming in in a dampened fashion, and he knew what he was attempting to do.   
"Daemon, no!"   
Rhyan stepped between the box sitting on the ground and the large Sentinel, his pale face set into determined lines.   
"Please step out of my way, Rhyan," Daemon said calmly.   
"I won't! What the hell do you think you are doing?!" he demanded.   
"Help."   
"Help? You are about to kill Capricorn!"   
Daemon's optics dimmed in pain. "No, it will be a relief."   
Disbelief crossed the human's features.   
"It is my wish," Capricorn suddenly said.   
"What?" Rhyan whirled around. "Why? And what about Kesh?"   
A soft sigh escaped the small AI. "Why? Because it is my wish. I have become a lethal danger to everything and everyone. The longer I prolong my death, the more are likely to die around me, Dr. Masters. As for Kesh, she knows. We have talked about this dozens of times. We are prepared."   
"No!" Rhyan protested. "I can't accept it! There has to be another way!"   
"There is none," Daemon told him levelly. "Capricorn can no longer exist in small electronic environments. She requires more, and every time she gets more, she needs more. It's an endless circle."   
"We could help....."   
"Rhy, no. No one can help her. Take her to Cybertron and in the end she will take over the whole planet. The moment Capricorn connects to something more sophisticated than the PC, she'll go into battle mode. She will defend herself.... with deadly force." Daemon shook his head. "It's the only way."   
Rhyan's face hardened even more. "I won't accept it!"   
"Get out of the way."   
"No!"   
"Rhyan...."   
"I won't," he hissed. "I won't let you commit a murder!"   
"It is not murder, Dr. Masters," Capricorn told him. "I put it on record of your base that Daemon did not kill me. I request this. Kesh is my witness."   
"If she survives your death."   
"She will."   
Anger showed on Rhyan's face. "This is not the solution to your problems!"   
"It is, and you also know it. It is the only way and I will take it."   
<Rhyan, please>   
Burning blue eyes fixed on the tall robot. <I can't accept it. Put down your weapon, Daemon! We can find another way>   
Daemon shook his head. There was only one way and this was it. And there was only one way to get Rhyan to move without actually picking him up bodily. Daemon didn't really want to do it and he knew he might destroy everything he had had with Rhyan.   
<Rhyan, I'm sorry> he whispered.   
Rhyan Masters felt a sudden blaze of pain in his neck, his implants relaying a signal spike of a proportion he had never felt before. It overloaded his receptors and seemed to fry his nerves. The couldn't scream because it was just too fast, but Daemon heard a gasp of pain, then the human collapsed into a heap on the floor.   
"I'm sorry," he repeated, voice heavy.   
"He will understand," Capricorn said softly.   
"In time, maybe." Daemon looked up and aimed his gun at the defenseless box again, his hand steady, the visible part of his face set in a decisive mask. "Good-bye, Capricorn."   
"Good-bye, Daemon. It was an honor."   
He squeezed the trigger.

*   
Miles away, Cassandra Kyshradi abruptly opened her eyes, a shudder running through her body. She doubled over with a gasp, moaning as pain coursed through her body.   
Then she passed out.   
It was over.

* * *

Daemon sat in the middle of the desert, the sun setting already. In about two or three more hours it would be totally dark, but nothing could hide what he had done, not even the night. His body trembled uncontrollably, his mind racing. He had just committed murder. He had slipped back into what he had been, he had let Synchrony take over, and he had killed Capricorn. His first instinct after this action had been to shoot himself, to spare him the accusations, the hatred, the guilt..... But he had not been able to do it, mainly for one reason: Rhyan Masters.   
His partner was still unconscious, lying next to him. What he had done to him was maybe even worse than taking another life. He had sent a spike to black Rhyan out, doing something he had only theorized about all the time. He could influence his Interface partner to a degree where it frightened him.   
A soft moan made Daemon aware of Rhyan's growing consciousness. He looked at him as he stirred and slowly opened his eyes. Confusion came in through the link, a link Daemon thought he had no right of blocking any longer. And what use was it anyway? He was dead. What he had done could never be explained, nor could it be excused.   
"Daemon?" Rhyan groaned as he sat up.   
"I'm sorry, Rhyan," Daemon whispered, optics dimmed.   
"Why?" the human asked. He looked pale and only half-conscious.   
It was a simple question, but there was no simple answer to it.   
Instead of answering Daemon used the link to confront Rhyan with a series of images, using their bionic connection like a copy machine. Rhyan closed his eyes for a moment, letting it all transmit. They had done this before on countless missions, but never had it been accompanied by this icy cold rage and desperation. And he was still too sensitive from the spike he had had to suffer hours earlier.   
"She asked me for it, Rhyan. It was a request I could not deny," Daemon whispered.   
"You killed her!" he blurted.   
Daemon evaded the accusing blue eyes. "Yes."   
"Daemon, it was not the solution!" Rhyan nearly yelled.   
"It was. There was no other way out."   
"That's always the excuse! Just take the easy way out and jump, right? Don't confront your problems, just commit a murder!"   
Rhyan was angry, the headache was killing him and he couldn't think straight. All poured out of him now, his anger at what had happened, at the senseless death of so many friends, at Ian McCormack's death in particular, all directed at Daemon.   
"I'm sorry," the Sentinel whispered again. He rose slowly, his movements hesitant, like he had suddenly aged within the last hours, his lubricants dried, his joints stiff. "I had to do it. It was the only way and it was a salvation for Cappi."   
Rhyan shook his head, closing his eyes against the pain raging behind them. "We could have helped," he repeated weakly.   
"No, Rhyan. No one could help them. No one." Daemon felt a tremor pass through him. The link was still wide open and he needed Rhyan's closeness, but he knew there was no chance his friend would ever forgive him for what he had done. "I.... " He stopped, unable to say it.   
He had to leave. This partnership was at an end. He had fallen back to what his past had been like, he had killed in cold blood, and nothing could prevent that from happening again.

Rhyan Masters sighed. So that was it.   
"Oh, damn," he now only muttered.   
He could gather his stuff and leave now. Well, he had planned to one day anyway because it would soon be rather obvious that he wasn't aging anymore, but not now.... not so soon!   
He should have seen it coming, Rhyan thought with a bit of guilt worming its way into his thoughts. Daemon was Synchrony and there was no hiding it anywhere. Part of the old Sentinel was still there, buffered and filtered through Rhyan, but now it had surfaced with a vengeance.   
He cursed.   
The Autobots would be furious. Hell, *he* was furious! At himself mostly. Daemon wasn't to blame, really. He was acting out his basic programming and that was Sync. Rhyan had managed to change him through his contact, he had discovered that there were emotions under that harsh and cold exterior, that Daemon had a fragile soul just like any other Cybertronian, but he hid it well and sometimes he couldn't control his reactions to certain events. Daemon cared, but he chose who to care for and when to care. They had worked out a partnership and it functioned very well, but this time the past had backfired on Daemon.   
In a way he understood, he really did. But would the others?   
Rhyan looked at his partner again. He couldn't blame him, really. He could only blame himself for what had happened and he would have to take the heat. Daemon had been under severe stress, starting from Rodimus Prime's arrival to his near-fatal encounter with Aries. He had been rattled by this and his emotions had been on overload. Rhyan had felt it because his partner had kept the link closer than usual. Shaking his head, Rhyan rubbed his throbbing neck. He would have to go back to the base and explain this mess to the others, mainly Rodimus Prime.   
"This will not be pretty," he said softly.   
Daemon was silent. "I will leave," he finally whispered.   
"Daemon, don't be an idiot," Rhyan told him harshly, his own thoughts about quitting Project coming back at him.   
The Sentinel shook his head. "I am a realist, Rhyan. When this gets out, and it will, leaving will be the best decision I can make. The other choice would be deactivation and the scrap yard."   
"Daemon...!"   
His red optics flared. "You know it just like I do! They will argue I'm a lethal danger once more, a loose cannon, and I probably am!"   
"And what will happen to me?" Masters asked quietly.   
"You still have your job," Daemon said weakly.   
"I'm not talking about the job, I'm talking about our partnership. The Interface."   
Daemon winced. "It's not really an Interface. We can manage...."   
"No, we can't, and it is an Interface! We are linked. We might be able to shut down the implants, but we can not deny the connection. You'll die, Daemon."   
"So what?" he mumbled.   
"So what?" Rhyan echoed. "Damnit, I care what happens to you, don't you understand? We are partners!"   
Daemon's emotions were going haywire again. The latest events had rattled him.... thoroughly.... more than he had thought. Rhyan suddenly reached for him and he flinched away.   
"Don't," he whispered. "Let me leave."   
<No! No, I won't! Daemon, please. I can't understand what you did and why, but don't push me away>   
Daemon felt a tremor race through him again. He fed on the emotions coming through the link, needed them, embraced them. In a way, he thought, he was like Aries, and it frightened him. He was dependent on something he couldn't demand or force; he needed human emotions, a human's closeness, to live.   
<Transform>   
Daemon reacted almost automatically, taking on his car mode. Rhyan opened the door and slid into the seat.   
"We need to go back."   
"I know."   
"And we need to explain what happened."   
"I ...know."   
Rhyan hooked an arm around the steering wheel. "Daemon, you are not a killer machine, I know that."   
"I took a life!" Daemon interrupted him angrily.   
Rhyan rubbed the dashboard in a soothing manner. "Yes, you killed." He rested his head against the steering wheel. "But not in cold blood, not with the intent to end a life because you enjoyed it."   
Daemon knew Rhyan wasn't lying. The voice stress analyzer, which was able to determine the veracity of spoken statements, was one source to verify this. Another one was the wide open link. Rhyan believed him that he had not simply killed Cappi because it had pleased him or he had taken some kind of perverse pleasure out of it. He had done what she had asked of him. Daemon didn't say anything any more; he simply savored his friend's presence.   
"Thank you," he finally said.   
Rhyan pried one eye open. "What for?"   
"Bearing with me."   
He smiled softly. "Always."

* * *

The base was too quiet for Rodimus. He paced restlessly, unable to concentrate on anything, too upset to relax and go into recharge. The still standing part of the base wase darkened. His Interface partner was sleeping, or at least he thought she was. He hadn't heard anything from her in the last hours and he didn't want to pry through the link. The other members of Project were either sleeping as well or working, or trying to make sense of their suddenly so upturned lives. Rodimus had no idea where Daemon was and tried to push the other Sentinel's image out of his mind. Rhyan Masters was in the medical ward for some reason, though he couldn't remember any physical damage when he had seen him return.   
Feeling exhaustion weigh heavily on his shoulders, Rodimus tried to banish the memories of this morning out of his mind,but he failed miserably. His thoughts whirled in circles; everything brought him back to Capricorn. There was no escape for him, and he dreaded trying to sleep. Nightmares would follow, worse than reality.   
Capricorn was dead. Kesh was in a coma. Gemini was ... no one could define what she was. Comatose? Dead? Sleeping? Ethan Keller was unconscious and probably comatose as well, Aries was destroyed.   
Rodimus tried to make sense of the last few days and failed. They had discovered an incredible horror hiding in the labs of a company they had thought highly of, and now there was nothing but death and destruction left. Rodimus felt darkness ooze inside him, his usually optimistic approach to life turning to hopelessness as he searched in vain for answers to questions he found he did not have the strength to ask.   
Why had the humans done this to their own kind?   
What they thought to gain from destroying young lives, forcing them into a symbiosis with machines, forcing their minds to take on a second one?   
He shivered.   
And now Capricorn, the only apparently stable Zodiac, was dead. Killed.   
Something interrupted his train of thought, although he couldn't recall what it was. He'd lost track of where he was, letting his feet take him where they would and found himself in the vast hangar normally used to house main lab; now it held Daemon.   
The days' stressful events sparked a fury in Rodimus and he wearily fought it down as he approached the dark vehicle. The blue scanner swept across the track once, telling him that the Sentinel was aware of his presence, but it didn't matter. He would have found out soon enough.   
Daemon had always held a dark and hidden fear for Rodimus, ever since he had found out what he had been and still was under this mantle of cold distancy and sometimes materializing cruelty. A cold-blooded killer. A merciless hunter. A creature only driven by self-preservtion and no regard for other life. He had changed, Rodimus knew, he had Interfaced and he had developed, but the deed, the murder of Capricorn, had shown him different.   
But had it been murder, another part of him asked silently.   
"Why?" Rodimus whispered.   
Daemon sat in silence and didn't answer.   
"Why did you kill her?" Rodimus' voice took on some of his anger, coming out in a hiss.   
Again, Daemon refused to answer, exhuding the icy silence that he was so well known for.   
"You killed an innocent!"   
"I merely fulfilled a last wish."   
"Last wish!?" Rodimus echoed.   
"It was Capricorn's right as a sentient being to decide what to do with her life," Daemon stated flatly.   
"And you helped her along, right?"   
Daemon suddenly transformed and Rodimus was faced with the dark, menacing form of the Sentinel. "Yes, I did just that, Rodimus Prime," he said calmly. "She called me and asked me for help. I could not deny her this help."   
"You killed her, for Cybertron's sake!"   
"And I would do it again."   
Rodimus' blue optics flared. "You haven't changed from your past then."   
"Change is not necessary. I did not murder or kill her. I relieved her of her pain. Humans would call it euthanasia."   
"I call it murder!"   
Rodimus knew he was starting to go irrational, but right now he didn't care.   
"Do you know what she was?" Daemon asked quietly.   
He blinked. "Of course I know! She was an artificial intelligence created by CyberTek. She was sentient; she was linked to a human; she was alive."   
"And she was a programmed hunter and killer. She had been born to take one of you over if she ever came in contact with you. She could warp circuits, erase programs, change routines. Capricorn was a Zodiac and you saw how two of them turned out. She might have been more stable, but she was growing instable with every day. Small machines were no longer enough; she wanted more." Daemon's voice took on a pained tone. "She knew what she was turning into, what her fate would one day be, and she choose her pah out of the fate she had been assigned to."   
Rodimus felt a small pit of dread in his circuits. What Daemon had just said about Capricorn implied things he didn't want to think about. But then.... was he telling the truth or not?   
"She told me, Rodimus Prime," the Sentinel added. "And left us her files. It's all there. It was a relief and it hurt me jus as much as it hurts you now to do what had to be done." He shook his head. "I am not without emotions, I am not a cold-blooded killer," he added softly. "Had there been another way, I would have taken it."   
With that he transformed and silently left the hangar. Rodimus watched him go, his mind screaming in denial.

* * *

Rhyan was cooped up in his lab and worked on his latest project. He had told the others the basics of what had happened, had given them a toned-down version of the events. Somehow, Mage had read between the lines and understood. She and Bandit, the only two uninjuredof his old team, had left him alone for now, but Rhyan knew they would try to help. But there was no way to help. How would anyone be able to help anyway?   
Daemon had been eerily silent all the time, keeping to himself. Rhyan had not treated him any differently than before, mainly because there was no reason to.   
Rodimus Prime knew what had happened and so did probably everyone by now. They would leave soon and maybe it was the best to follow their example in the near future. The future..... it was cloudy at best, the fate of Project pending, the no one really sure what to do now. Rhyan closed his eyes and stopped his work. He cursed softly and tried to pull himself together.   
Suddenly someone touched him. It was a mental touch, tentative and careful. It reminded him a lot of the time after Daemon had nearly overloaded all implants and Rhyan had had a break-down. No one knew about it, not really anyway, but it had been quite painful and it had taken Rhyan days to straighten himself out. The first time after this incident, Daemon had been just as careful, afraid to do more harm than good.   
<You can stop hiding> Rhyan now sent, trying not to sound so tired. <I can feel you>   
Daemon's presence increased and it was a like a missing part coming back. <You are blaming yourself for an incident you could neither have foreseen nor prevented> he said levelly.   
Rhyan smiled dimly.   
Daemon sent a shiver through him. <But it's mine. Only mine>   
<No. No one blames you anymore>   
<I couldn't let this continue, Rhy> Daemon whispered desperately. <I ... I just couldn't....>   
Rhyan reached out and pried the link completely open. Daemon resisted slightly but didn't withdraw. It was his only weakness: the bionic link. He needed Rhyan and cutting himself off from him was like a worst case scenario for him. Losing the connection to his human partner meant losing input, meant sensory deprivation..... for him it was death and the revival of Synchrony. Rhyan closed down the modification program he had been working on and sighed softly. They had always had a difficult partnership. This was just another episode to add to everything.   
<They are leaving now> Daemon said after a while.   
<I know. It is for the best>   
<What will happen now? What will happen to us all?>   
Rhyan shrugged. He didn't know. <I wish I knew, partner, I wish I knew.....>   
 * * *

Rodimus Prime watched as the body of Angela Howard, aka Gemini, was carried over to where a black jet was parked in the middle of the landing strip. The casket was secured to the belly of the jet and the all-clear signal was given. Midnight taxied onto the run-way and then accelerated, taking off. He jumped the moment he was airborne.   
"Ready?" Wild Card asked.   
Rodimus sighed. "No, but we have to go, I know."   
A week had passed since the destruction of the Project facility and too much had happened to really understand. Capricorn was dead, that he understood. The AI had left a detailed report as to why she had decided to do this and it proved everything he had thought about her correct, everything Daemon had old him. She had been designed to take over whatever technology she encountered, even strong enough to hook herself onto a Cybertronian. She was a danger that was slowly becoming lethal and totally out of control. She had taken the only way out.   
Shanygn had found Cassandra in her quarters, unconscious .... comatose. There had been a note on her desk, almost like Capricorn's good-bye letter, telling everyone that if she was more than just unconscious or asleep that they shouldn't keep her alive. No one had any idea how to help the young woman. Her body was intertwined with the cybernetics that it was impossible to free her from the machine she carried. Dr. Harper had examined her thoroughly and it made Rodimus sick to think about what the CyberTek people had done to all these children. Harper had ordered her to be put into stasis for the time   
 being and her sleeping form was now stored deep inside the partially rebuilt building. He had no intention to simply let her die and Rodimus understood him.   
Ethan Keller, Joe Amron and Cassandra Kyshradi were the last of the Zodiac program, the last ones alive and partially sane, though no one could tell if the two comatose people would wake up with their minds intact – if they ever woke up again. As for Amron, Rodimus had long debated about taking him to Cybertron, maybe ask the Sentinels and their Interfaces for help. He was suffering from the separation from Taurus and it was not unlike the separation from a Sentinel. In the end he had decided against it for now. He knew this didn't end here and that he would be back about it.   
As Rodimus followed Wild Card to the landing strip he searched for Daemon, but he couldn't see the Sentinel anywhere.   
"Let's go," he nodded to Wild Card.   
The Sentinel opened the links inside him that made Gate jumping possible and then touched Rodimus' arm. Shanygn had phased into her partner for this ride. They disappeared.

* * *

"It failed."   
The gray-haired man smiled. "No, my friend. Not really."   
"But they are dead!"   
"Yes and no. You cannot kill a Zodiac. You can only discontinue it."   
The other man shook his head in confusion. "What are you talking about?"   
"You'll see.... in time."


End file.
